This Ain't No Bull!

I grew up in rural LA. Honest. I did! For those who didn’t know LA had a rural area, it does, when LA stands for Lower Alabama!

We lived about six miles outside of town, a very small town of about 8,000 people. On one side of our house was woods, on another side was an area where our neighbor grew corn, and behind my house was a pasture—where cows grazed. Oh, and there was one bull!

We loved going into the pasture. Most of the time, the cows and bull didn’t bother us. I think they were as scared of us as we were of them. However, I remember one day in particular, when the bull took exception to us being in “his” pasture.” Out of nowhere, the bull decided to charge my brother and me. As he did, we took off running. It quickly became clear that we could not outrun the bull. So, we began to look for a nearby tree to climb. All of the trees were too high and there were no branches low enough to reach.

Well, the bull continued to gain on us and we continued to run. We finally saw a tree that had branches too high to reach, but we ran toward the tree anyway. I think we were still trying to decide what to do. Well, believe it or not, we both jumped and landed on the first branch, just out of the reach of that angry bull. He stayed around for a few minutes before finally leaving us alone. I think he knew he had made his point!

Needless to say, we were much more careful the next time we strolled through the pasture! And, when we saw the bull coming, we went the other direction. Fast!

That’s what makes the annual story out of Pamplona, Spain, so crazy. Yesterday, crazy daredevils kicked off the running of the bulls through the streets of Pamplona. Yesterday alone, nine people suffered bumps and bruises. Fortunately, no one was gored.

The entire run takes about four minutes to complete. Monday’s run was the first of eight scheduled runs. Since record-keeping began in 1924, 14 runners have died, the last was an American, in 1995.

I’ll never be in the number of people who are trampled, bruised, or gored during that run. I will never be in the crowd of people to watch in person the running of the bulls—after all, all it takes is for one bull to lose his sense of direction and go after the crowd instead of the runners!

So, I’ll stay home, I think, and to be honest, not even watch the action on TV. Heck, once you’ve seen a person gored, do you really want to see another person gored? Not me! There’s already enough “gory” TV on! Sorry about that, that was just too easy of a pun to let it go.

So, does running with the bulls interest you? Would you ever try it?