IT JUMPED THE FENCE!!!

Ever since the bull crashed the fence at Joppru's during a rodeo when I was a kid, I haven't liked being in the stands during the bull riding, except I really like to watch it from the safety of the house. I saw on the news this morning that some bull jumped the fence and some folks got hurt. ALSO at a bull fight in some far away country, a black bull JUMPED the wall and got into the place where the matadors wait. I mean this bull was running hard when he cleared the fence. I did not know bulls could jump like that!

Joppru's was a meat market/sales barn in my home town. The rodeo area was fence with sheep fence; not very protective. The 'stands' were nail crates with 12 x 12's. How do I know all this? My grandfather set up the area every fall for the rodeo. Joppru was quite the promoter. He also added a pie and coffee counter in the sales barn, then later, served chili. (The chili was always burned).

It was a family operation and still is! Did his two sons, Don and Dean become butchers? If so, where were they trained? It was a great place to party and if the inspectors ever knew kids were making out between the swinging sides of beef, well, let's just say, the making out was Grade A.

The operation was out of the city limits and there was always one Sheriff car sitting on the road next to the entrance trying to nab curfew and kids who were drinking. Didn't happen, everyone would just curl up on a cutting counter, take a nap, and go home when curfew lifted at 6A.

I wonder what my folks though when I came home smelling like rancid animal fat and saw dust? They never asked and I never said, "Hey, I have been out at Joppru's making out in the swinging sides"!

Would you?

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