Stories from the Stringam Family Ranches of Southern Alberta

From the 50s and 60s to today . . .



Saturday, May 25, 2013

When City Hits Country


City Kids!

My cousin was visiting.
For two whole weeks.
She was a city girl.
But the only difference between a city girl and a ranch girl was location.
Right?
I took her swimming in the river.
She got sand in her suit.
She taught me ballet.
I fell over a lot.
I taught her how to swing from a rope in the hay loft.
She got a rope burn on her hands.
She taught me how act out stories.
I . . . actually, I liked that. A lot.
I tried to get her to ride the pigs.
She stood outside the fence and made a face.
And held her nose.
She taught me gymnastics.
I fell and knocked the air out of me.
I decided it was time to teach her my most favourite thing.
Horseback riding.
I drug her out to the corral and pushed her up to the top rail. Kicking and screaming.
Her, not me.
Looking back, I can see the differences between the two of us as we perched up on that fence.
The country and the city girl.
Me, in my inevitable shirt and jeans.
She in her white slacks and blouse and light blue sweater.
Even a fool would have found it obvious.
I wasn't a fool.
Well, actually . . . never mind.
The horses were drowsing in the corral.
She eyed them suspiciously.
“They're okay,” I reassured her. “C'mon.”
Trustingly, she followed me down and into the corral.
I picked out the nearest horse, Coco. “Here. This is a good one.”
“But she's so huge!” Her eyes got bigger as she drew closer.
“She's gentle!” I gave the large, coco-brown mare a reassuring pat. The horse reached out and lipped my hair. “See?”
My cousin moved beside me. “Okay. What do I do?”
I showed her how to stand beside the horse and grab a handful of mane. Then I cupped my hands, told her to step into them and boosted her up. At the proper time, she swung her leg.
She was aboard.
The excitement must be coursing through her! She must be palpitating with accomplishment and eagerness and a sense of 'the world is mine'!
I stepped back.
I must admit that everything my cousin did was graceful. Her walking. Her dancing.
Her falling off a horse.
It should have been all right. The horse wasn't even moving, after all.
But she didn't land on the ground.
Instead, she fell onto something much . . . softer.
I don't think she was pleased.
I guess some people have a problem with large, steaming piles of horse buns. Road apples. Horse puckies.
To the uninitiated, manure.
People are so weird.
She got to her feet. And looked down at her light blue sweater.
Her heretofore pristine light blue sweater.
Then she looked at me.
Uh-oh.
I never got my cousin back up on one of our horses.
Instead we spent the rest of her stay dancing. Doing plays and gymnastics. Reading.
While Mom got the marks out of her sweater.
Before her mom saw them.
City girls.
Pffff.

12 comments:

  1. Wimps. The whole bunch of them. Of course, not ALL girls from the city are 'City Girls' lol.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. You are so right there! I had other cousins from the city that were even more 'country' than I was!

      Delete
  2. Haha... I was one of those city girls... :-D

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Sometime, you can give ME a tour of the city! Then you'll see a fish out of water!

      Delete
  3. Does she laugh about it and tell her kids. That's the true cousin test, city or country.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. She talks about the fun time she had staying on the ranch. I don't know if the manure makes it into the story . . . :)

      Delete
  4. LOL! I am sitting here laughing. Not sure at whom....or WITH whom. ; )

    I am one of those country girls....born and raised......and yet I am a city girl too. I've lived more the city life now than I did growing up in the country. So I "get" both sides I guess.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. This comment has been removed by the author.

      Delete
    2. Half my life there. Half my life here. And I still don't have a clue in either world! :)

      Delete
  5. Oh, dear :)

    Joanne raises a good point: how does your cousin look back on that story?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Heehee! She speaks of the ranch fondly. But doesn't mention manure!

      Delete
  6. I love that story. Just like something out of a book, only funnier because it really happened. Well, funny because it didn't happen to me. :) I mostly had boy cousins, so we played superheroes. A lot.

    ReplyDelete

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