The Zulu Dance or How to Shock Your Mother Senseless

Well I've mentioned the Rugby House a couple of times and thought I would tell you about the Sport of Rugby.  #2 Son had dreamed of playing Football in College; not something that I really wanted to see happen and it did  not.  Therefore, he was about to embark on a few summers of Rugby for his sport of choice which was a good excuse to drink beer and lead a decadent life-style while in college.

Tips for Mothers:  First of all if you cannot stand to see your #2 Son knocked senseless repeatedly, do not go to the games.  Other than that, and the lifestyle that went with Rugby (which includes copious amounts of beer, lots of women, and more beer), I did enjoy the games.  Frankly it made more sense to me than American Football.  For one thing it was not a mish-mash of physical tackles, first downs, guys with chains, guys with flags, and all that stuff,.  Nope, the moves in every rugby game were pretty much the same and consisted of:

1)Time Out.

 

#2 Son discovers drinking copious amounts of beer does not add up to Good Stamina.

(#2 is on the left clutching his knees and gasping )

2. the PILE- UP.

The Dog Pile--there's ball under there somewhere.And maybe #2 Son......

3.  Discussion with Your Teammates...or AT THEM.

#2 Son doing what he always was good at -- Heated Discussions!

(He's a Lawyer now - go figure, huh?)

4) The Scrum.

A Scrum with the ball in the Center on the ground. Somehow they 

figure out whose team gets the ball from this, but I'll

be jiggered if I can tell you HOW.

5) Pushing The Team - to get the ball moving forward towards a goal.

 

Yoo-Eeee-Ohhhh. PUSH THAT LOAD, PUSH THAT LOAD!

I enjoyed watching the games as the summer went by.  We didn't go to them all but did manage to attend all the Home games at Nowhere.

AND THEN (oh you knew there was going to be an AND THEN didn't you?) someone made their first rugby goal.  They all gathered around at the end of the game, (looked kinda like the Scrum) started chanting and stomping like aborginals on the African plains, AND THEN.....

A totally buck-naked rugby player dashed out from the "Zulu Dance" and ran pell mell around the goal posts which was about the length of a fifty-yard dash and headed back to the circle of the Zulu Dance and it's screening abilities in order to become presentable in polite society again.

My jaw was somewhere around my knees.  After the Team congratulatory line .....

Apparently Modesty and Rugby Player does not go together.

I said to #2 Son, 'WHAT in the Sam-Hill was the deal with the naked guy?'  

'Oh,' he replied. 'When you are a new player and make your first goal, you have to do the Zulu Dance,  which is stripping in the center of the dance circle and making on lap around the goal post.'

"WAIT," I screamed.  "Did you not tell me you made your first goal last week in the South of Somewhere Game?"

"Yeah," he replied with sly grin.

SON, Here's an epistle for you.  Your Mother does NOT EVER want to see the Yoo-Hoo she used to diaper bouncing around a grassy field in front of one hundred people.  NOT EVER.  Got it?

Valentine's Day

   I read in the news today, that the average person spent $60 for a gift for their honey!!  SIXTY DOLLARS - are you kidding!  Wow.  Hubby's never been one to do much for Valentine's Day especially if it's in the middle of the week.

 

The Snowmobile Trail going down the hill to our Trailer.

  It was nice Valentine's Day fell on a Sunday this year so Hubby & I could spend it together.  We drove from Sixty Miles North of Nowhere to Somewhere and ate a late lunch at a nice restaurant.  Then we went up and checked out the trailer on the mountain.  It had over 24" of snow on it so Hubby hiked through the drifts and shoveled it off.
  The snowmobilers were out in force and zooming around.  It looks like fun sorda.  Hubby says we need to some a couple of snowmobiles.  I'm not sure I'm into being cold and wet but I guess maybe one of these days we will find out.
   Stopped at the feed store and when we got back to Sixty Miles North Of Nowhere dropped it off for the cows and looked for the elk but didn't see them.
    At the end of the day, I felt like I had gotten my $60 worth of Valentine's Day. 

Memories of George

 

Edward S. Curtis photo of a Blood Horseman from American Memories Website

Yesterday while cruising through the American Memories Website from the Library of Congress, I was looking at some Edward Curtis pictures of Indians and it brought back the memory of a special man I knew in the Big Horn Basin when I was young(er).

George hung around the bar that was attached to a restaurant where I was waiting tables when my kids were little.  One day George looked up at me and said, "How come you are always so nice to me?  I'm just a drunken old Indian."  I was aghast and told George I thought he was really pretty special.

He opened up a little to me after that and  I found out that for years he had worked on a ranch where the lady of the house was a special mentor to George.  It was hinted to me that George's wife had kicked him out for his booze habits and this lady, Helen, had gotten him to quit drinking.  George was on that ranch many, many years and then Helen died in her fifty's.  George just fell pieces without her, even though he stayed working on the ranch.

I asked him what tribe he was from and he told me he was  a Blood Indian; and said "I bet you haven't even heard of them."  Well I had, they are related to the Blackfeet tribe but are located north of the Canadian border.  He was surprised I knew of them.

 

Call on All Sides, Blood Woman, by Edward S. Curtis

This was the time period when Iran was holding hostages from our Embassy (Jimmy Carter was President) and they had just been released when Ronald Reagan became President.  It was always on the television and the hostages were telling how rough it had been.  George snorted quietly into his beer one time and said, "The North Koreans held me for three years and I was beat every damn day of it."  End of discussion on his part and he never mentioned it again.  He was a Korean War Hero but you'd never had known it from him.

He led a sad lonely life, apart from his family and mostly apart from any friends.  Today I am sure it would have been recognized he probably had severe post traumatic stress syndrome and treatment would have been available. He died not too many years after this.  He had quiet dignity about him and was always kind and very soft-spoken. I never saw him angry except for the comment on his Korean war prisoner experience and you could tell it made him angry.

I am glad I knew George.  May you be in the hunting grounds with your Blood relatives and finally at peace.

 

Three Bulls, Blood Brave by Edward S. Curtis

I think they are a very handsome tribe and look at the beautiful clothing!

At tremendous personal cost, Edward S. Curtis published 20 volumes of "North American Indians".  It was his life work and without his dedication to the project, many of the visual images we have of our Native Americans would have vanished along with them.  We owe this man a deep debt.

You can view the enitre Edward Curtis collection Here:
http://memory.loc.gov/ammem/award98/ienhtml/curthome.html

More LWPNE or It's Okay Boys - She's Gonna Live!!!

Pleased be informed that most of what you read on this blog is TRUE.  Only the names have been changed to protect the GUILTY.

When #2 Son was still at home, #1  Son already out on own his Living With Practically No Effort (LWPNE), I had to be suddenly whisked away unexpectedly for five days due to a serious infection leaving the poor helpless male creatures at our abode without a built in cook and bottle washer.

 

A military civil war kitchen at Alexandria, VA

As pointed out in a previous blog, the men in my household are highly 'kitchen-impaired'.

Five days later, I caught a ride home from the hospital with my friend Bluebelle.  And what greeted my eyes when I stepped through the door?  A PILE (and I do mean a PILE) of dirty dishes in the kitchen sink.  It looked like something out of a Snuffy Smith cartoon.  

It was apparent from this pile that the ENTIRE menu while I had been gone had consisted of a)Peanut Butter Sandwiches, b) Cold Cereal, and the coup de' grace c) Ice Cream!  For FIVE DAYS that was all they ate. 

Unbelievable.

I turned to my friend, Bluebelle, and said, "Promise me, when I'm gone, you'll come in and SHOOT THESE GUYS.  There's no sense making them suffer like this.!"  She promised.  I can Rest In Peace now.

One of these days Guys - You're Gonna Be Sorry!   -- Mom

(Images on today's blog came from the American Memories website. Go visit it at
http://memory.loc.gov)

How to Live With Practically No Effort or Men and Cooking

 

Originator of LWPNE - Have your Native American Wife do it ALL!

Mention of the Rugby House (see prior Post) brought up some memories! Hubby doesn't cook, heck he just learned to boil water and make coffee two years ago and he is fifty-three!  #1 Son can cook but won't.  #2 Son does BBQ and BBQ........

Now I tried, I mean, I really tried to get the kids interested in cooking when they were younger and had them help me a few times.  But it became readily apparent that they found ME and THE KITCHEN as interesting as watching paint dry.  So I just chuckled and watched them struggle through Home Economics in junior high with the #1 Most Patient Teacher on Earth.  Bless her pea-pickin' heart because both #1 Son and #2 Son took her lessons to heart and learned to Live With Practically No Effort.

I really did not realize how adept #1 son had become to LWPNE (living with practically no effort) until he went to college and we went to visit him.   He proudly showed us where he lived (under the basement stairs in a 6' x 9' space in an old decrepit house with umpteen other boys).  I politely pointed out to him that I knew of people in third world countries who lived in better conditions and were not relying on student loans and family generosity for living expenses --  in this case defined as  beer money (more on that below).  I found out such living arrangements are one of the basic rules of LWPNE.

Then Hubby and I discovered the #2 rule - food with no effort.  He showed us what he was eating -- a 5# bag of russett potatoes (you can microwave in four minutes) a tub of butter, a loaf of bread and peanut butter and instant oatmeal.  THAT WAS IT! as I recall except for a well stocked refrigerator of beer and a bottle of whiskey.  He assured us that was not on his menu (right and I fell off the tomato truck yesterday, son!)

#2 Son had learned his LWPNE lessons well too.  He moved into the RUGBY HOUSE during college (that's whole other story but I don't think the Blog Police will let me accurately describe it) with umpteen jillion little beer-swilling (okay now I'm searching for a word for the room-mates but none I want in print comes to mind. but you get the picture).  I never asked about the menu/food arrangements because the home-made beer experiment had blown up on the stove and was all over the kitchen plus the pizza box had caught fire from the pilot light the previous night and the kitchen had all the remains of that too. Gotta give someone credit though.  They had thrown the blackend burned box into the trash.   Which brings me to Rule #3.

Rule #3 of LWPNE is housekeeping optional at least for two years.  Hopefully by then you will have moved out.

Rule #4 - Laundry goes home to Mother if at all possible or at least until she catches on and makes YOU do your own.  Bummer......

 

My Vision of my kids' future during their college years.  

I was a Mom - I was worried.  Hubby assured me it wasn't that bad.  After all, he had an apartment, roommates, etc during college.  OH MY GOSH -- The light bulb went on. IT'S GENETIC!   Somebody QUICK hire a therapist for the grandkids!!!!

Mamas Don't Raise Your Babies to be Cowboys! #2 Son

Not having learned my Lesson with #1 Son -- #2 Son followed the same path.

 

#2 Son when he was six years old getting on Freckles by himself!!

It was something to see and this horse was THEE BEST HORSE IN THE WORLD!

Gads, do we miss him.

#2 Son put himself through college with some help from us but also by breaking colts and working for his dad's contracting outfit on weekends and Summers.  This was my favorite photo from 2003 which I called "The Consultants".  He was breaking all these horses (all Morgans) that summer and they would watch each other in the round pen like they were giving tips to #2 Son on his technique!

 

#2 son breaking Melody, who is his Dad's horse now.

And drumroll..............................

#2 receiving his Juris Doctorate in May, 2009 with his wife and daughter.

Bet his Rugby House roommates would NEVER had seen this in his Future!!!    So Willie -- sometimes it does work out okay!                                                                                                           Proud Mom

Special Treat or Why I live on the Edge of Earth 60 miles north of Nowhere

 Today, Saturday, my #1 Son and #1 PDIL (perfect daughter-in-law) came out to 60 Miles north of Nowhere and we went to Buffalo, Wyoming to visit my mother.  It was a fun day, hour and half ride to visit going up, an hour to visit, and hour and half ride home.  Got home mid-afternoon to Beautiful Sunny Warm (well as warm as it gets in Jan-no-airy) so they caught horses and went for a short ride.  I went out and tended my chickens and we all met back up at the front of the house just after they had put saddles away.

This is what we saw - one of the Great Benefits (and they sometimes feel like darn few) of Living 60 Miles North of Nowhere.   ELK -- seven of them.  Only five in the photos because when I put my camera on super zoom it zoomed out two of them.

Now they all told me there WAS no way I could get a picture of them as they were too far away!!  HA HA - I darn sure did get it, guys.

Our mares were eating hay just on the hill in front of the elk.  Now I don't know if they were asleep or what but all of sudden they threw up their heads and headed back to the barn pronto like they had just noticed the elk.  Silly mares.

Hubby thinks these elk have been up there all winter and coming down after nightfall to clean up hay after our cows and horses.  He has seen them several times but this was first time we all saw them.  He says they don't pay any attention at all to his feed truck, like they are used to seeing it.  Well they may be used to seeing US, we are certainly not used to seeing THEM.   We have deer and antelope and other critters who share the Edge of the Earth with us and after seeing them every day, well they are just part of the landscape.  But after all these years in Wyoming, I still get a thrill whenever I see elk.  They are so majestic.  Truly one of our creator's masterpieces.

We ended the day with a nice supper and the kids went home.  End of a PERFECT day and one I'll remember for many many years to come.

Tomorrow #2 son--- elk got in my blogging way today. But I had to share.

Mamas Don't Raise Your Babies to be Cowboys!

Too Late Willie -- I already done did her!

Number One Son:

Summer 1979, #1 Son on my childhood pal Heidi.  It was her last summer.

 

Screw that Hat on Cowboy! (THIS is how it's done in case you wondered!)

AND NOW (drumrooooolllll) Years later:

 

Wrangling Dudes at Yellowstone National Park about Summer of 1998 (he did for 10 years!)

AND

 

Summer 2009 on Muddy Mountain with his wife's Morgan, Lullabye.

Hey Willie - you were Wrong.  This kid turned out okay!  Next up tomorrow #2 Son

                                                                                                                     The Proud Mom