Run for Your Life

I was playing alone on the sandy banks of the creek in front of our home. Intrigued in peaceful childhood play, I was arranging colorful small rocks in a pattern of a mountain range that I imagined would grow into huge snow covered peaks divided by canyons and fresh mountain streams.

Suddenly a Texas Cowboy trail leader's quick footed horse was drawn to a stop only inches away from my playground. The cowboy shouted, "Run for your life! Texas Longhorn steers are coming!" The suddenness of that warning command startled me. My shaky legs carried me to the safety of my home. My body quivered with chilly fear.

From the upstairs window I watched the big herd of five to six hundred Texas Longhorn steers cross the narrow bridge covering the creek. Clattering horns glistening in the bright morning sunshine made me thankful I was not in their pathway! The nervous, untamed animals could easily have trampled me to death had I not escaped from the unfenced, unprotected area.

The sweating, fly-ridden, wild beasts muttered their uncomfortable plight with upturned heads and loud bellows. Their flashing horns showed their uneasiness. The cowboys kept the rushing herd trotting as they herded them past crossroads. The animals loud snorting and heavy breathing added ear-piercing noises to this scene that was quiet and serene before their appearance.

The cowboys were shouting, "Ki Yai Yippee Yah Ai! Ki Yai Yippee Yah YAi!" Swinging leather tipped bull whips, crackling and popping sounds broke the silence of the early morning. Like an ocean wave flowing outward to an outgoing tide, the multi-colored herd gradually faded from sight. They would be driven another five hundred miles to a Kansas meat packing plant.

I sighed with relief that the cowboy had warned, "Run for your life!"

© Copyright 1997 Harold Wm. Wood

This page is maintained by Dr. Wood's son, Harold W. Wood, Jr., of Visalia, California.
My E-mail address is: harold@planetaryexploration.net

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