Sometimes we learn things and sometimes we don't. The year I was seventeen, I
learned a valuable lesson I shall never forget. No, I take that back, I learned
three valuable lessons one day that year. One. Never mess with a bull. Two.
Never tickle its nose. And three, a bull can run as fast as we can. And four,
when we are scared, we can do many things we never dreamed we could.
It was a hot August day and my boyfriend and I decided to visit the county 4-H
Fair. I always liked to walk through the rabbit barns, horse, pigs, etc.
We were walking through the buildings. I petted the rabbits and observed how
cute they were. We then went on to the horse barns. I was admiring their beauty
and I recall one had a colt that was adorable.
My boyfriend said, "Let's go see the cows." Now, for a city girl, cows just
never impressed me. I mean, you can't take one for a walk. You can't keep it in
your bedroom, and you can't ride it. I sure couldn't milk a cow, so it was no
big thing to me if we passed up the cow barns. But he wanted to see the cows, as
he was a farmer's son, so we went into the barns. I thought they stunk. He
thought they smelled earthly and 'normal'.
He was looking at this one cow and I walked on down the aisle past him. I got
outside the barn and another barn was next to the cow barn. All these cows had
their heads sticking out from under a rail. I saw this black one. Mind you, I
was a city girl.
It had a ring in its nose and two chains attached to the ring. And horns. I
couldn't see where the chains went, but I knew he was tied up somehow. There he
was, with that black head stuck way out under the rail, and beneath him was all
this straw. Long pieces of straw. I bent down and picked up a piece of straw and
tickled his nose with it. He snorted at me.
How was I supposed to know if his snort meant "Back it off lady" instead of
"Hey, that felt good, do it again?"
So I tickled him again. And then he began to do something crazy, he took his
front feet and started kicking them back, and snorting real loud. Well, when I
tickle my dog's nose, he kicks his feet and he LIKES it.......so I did it again.
Have you ever seen a bull smash through the pen he's in? Have you ever seen him
rip the ring right out of his nose? I did.
Everyone near me began screaming as he burst through the wood, pieces flying
everywhere.
I've never been much of a big runner in school, but I think I could have tried
out for the Olympics that day. I ran with all my might. The last thing I
remember was my boyfriend screaming out my name, "Run, RUN!"
On the other side of the barns where all these farm equipment contraptions.
Tractors, combines, and this one thing had what looked like a ladder on it. I
jumped up on the machine and began climbing the ladder as fast as I could.
People were running all over still screaming as the bull raced right behind me.
Maybe because the machine was red is why he did what he did. Maybe it's because
he saw me go up the ladder. Maybe it's because he just didn't like his nose
tickled.......but whatever the reason, that bull charged that piece of machinery
with all his might. I almost lost my grip on one of the ladder rungs, but even
though I was being shaken with the force of the bull, I hung on.
I was a good 15 foot in the air watching the crowd below as the bull kept
ramming the machine. I saw my boyfriend in the crowd waving yelling at me,
"Hang on, don't let go?"
Don't let go? Did he think I was nuts? I knew one thing, I didn't want to die at
seventeen years old and I sure didn't want to go being trampled, or eaten or
rammed by a bull.
That bull struck that farm machine so many times, my head was rattling, but I
held on tight. Finally, someone showed up with some kind of rod and I saw them
hit the bull with it. The bull laid down. (I found out later they'd put him to
sleep temporarily to get him back to his stall).
I still like going to fairs even after all these years. But as far as the bull
stalls, they can have it. And I learned NEVER to tickle a bulls nose ever again.
I'll just stick to dogs, thank you very much.
Sharon Bryant 1946@bellsouth.com
P. S. Sin is like that bull. Anyone flirting with sin will get burned. Ouch!
Deliverance can only be found in Jesus Christ.
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