The Mam & Pap Rodeo

 

Part 1 of 30

The Mam & Pap

Royal Splendid Traveling Rodeo

Alas, the days of yesteryear are all past. It’s true what the philosophers say, today is always today, yesterday’s always yesterday, but what these terms mean is a deep subject. The saddest thing about time and the passing of time is how stubborn it is, as it's never to return. Until such time, if any, I'm proven wrong.

Speaking from my own rich experience with this passing of time, I think back on the things I did earlier this morning. My dog for whatever reason had trouble doing her normal business, possibly something meant for me from the hand of fate to curse an otherwise beautiful day and slow me down on writing about the rodeo. The circumstances were certainly suspicious, like maybe the sun had a bad night on the other side of the world. And of course I've been messed with by the hand of fate before. I cried out to the gray sky for respite and the sun tried to peek through the thickness of what turned out to be clouds. I’m glad it's now in the past, but the past can be prologue if it happens again.

Then there’s the years gone by. What was once new becomes old. Grandma was a newborn once, later an old lady, and finally passed away when her time came. That’s a downer, I know, but it’s in the natural course of things. Just like someday, alas, the same thing might happen to me. I’m actually already fairly old. But as long as I’m able to pass gas and fake a grin, I’ll keep living and churning ‘em out, posts for my blog as well as days of life hopefully well-lived. I may not get the key to the city — I’m not well known — but it's all been done to death anyway, and I haven’t got time to stand on ceremony.

We’re sharing this month the memories we have in common — you and I — of the well-known traveling rodeo, The Mam & Pap Royal Splendid Traveling Rodeo. It happened in the days of yesteryear, and as we speak today, of course Mam and Pap are gone. There's still a rodeo going by that name, which several years ago was bought out by a corporate entity — who hold the name so tightly that even writing this series might have some legal consequences for me. But you won't tell. I have had experience with entanglements like that, but this time I'll be OK. Of course I wouldn't have the money to fight a legal challenge and I'd never expect my readers to chip in a dime (last of the big spenders). So I'm just going to post these memories and hope for the best. I would greatly encourage you to save off copies.

In addition, the series stops well short of the corrupt corporate takeover. The corporate incarnation when I saw it was crap and the show was shelved. They did the takeover when Mam passed away, with Pap virtually senile [try to prove it] when he signed the paperwork. They had clowns in the rodeo that would’ve made better managers than Pap at the end, but they had no legal standing. In years since I’ve gotten drunk with a few of them and they bared it all, the hooks those corporate hawks put in their flesh. There's nothing sadder than clowns sobbing tears of anguish.

Anyway, I hate to bring everyone down. Let's make rodeo whoopee! C'mon, c'mon, let’s whoop it up, get again the spirit of rodeo reverie, forever remembering the wonderful non-corporate version (when it was genuine) of THE MAM & PAP ROYAL SPLENDID TRAVELING RODEO!

P.S. -- I won't be mentioning the corporation again and all the chicanery they pulled on Pap, there's nothing we can do about it now. I stood at his grave one day and cried big tears of grief. Friends, those were the wettest moistest tears I've ever cried. Even stained my shirt. Between my first dog dying when I was 6 and Pap selling out the rodeo for a pittance -- aww, forget it. I just can't say my life has been a hundred percent happy.