You change the spin on it, make it funny!
Wait, control your temper “Spurs!” Just exactly where you gonna try and break it?
I’m no cowboy, but I can’t see how owning a broken horse could ever be a satisfying reward.

My memory calendar stumbles to it’s next stop at an incident involving our three sons ----------- and me. I don’t remember for sure, but I don’t believe their sister was involved in this one. Here’s how I remember it.
Back when the children were still school age living at home, we had a pack of wild dogs roaming around in our neighborhood. They often serenaded us with their yips barks and mournful hooooooooooooowwwwwwwwwwwwweeeeeeeellllllllls. One evening just after dark, this serenade commenced to begin outside our front door, it sounded like the pack of wild dogs was setting up stage just behind our South shelterbelt and tuning up for the performance. Suddenly the boys decided a dog eat dog challenge was in order, so throwing caution to the wind, the three “brave boys” slipped out the front door and echoed the dogs mournful sounds remarkably well. Remember, the only thing separating these two packs was a few trees planted in shelterbelt rows. Not much of a barrier!
Well, to add another dimension to this dog eat dog challenge, yours truly, “old dad” snuck out the back door, dropped down on all four on the back porch and added my best performance of dog pack echoing to the mix. Soon the wind must have blown caution back, because I realized a noticeable change of bravery in the pack of mimickers nearest the front of our house. So, I tried to upgrade my intrusion level to make it seem even more realistic that there were surprise visitors coming in from the rear to deal with also.
Suddenly the challenging pack became thunderously silent and I hadn’t realized it but, about that quickly the pack of three had retreated to safety inside the house.
The other thing I hadn’t realized, was how stupid I must have looked, down on all fours barking and carrying on like so many wild dogs, until one of the boys, who had stepped in behind me unnoticed said, “What’s the matter dad, can’t you bark standing up?”

The very first time I drove a car was when I was about 9 or 10 years old. We were going to be thrashing at Grandpa’s farm. It took a large crew of workers to do the thrashing. Grain stalks were harvested with a pull type binder leaving the head of grain intact. The binder cut the stalks of wheat or oats close to the ground and mechanically tied a bunch of the stalks together to make a bundle. They would collect on a bundle carrier before several were dropped to the ground at one place. Workers would pick these bundles back up and stack them against each other into shocks until the grain was ready to harvest. The field soon looked like it was full of Indian TP‘s. On thrashing day, three or four workers were needed to drive the horses that were hitched to hayracks. They would gather up these shocks and bring them to the thrashing machine. There the bundles were thrown onto a conveyor and fed into the thrasher. The thrasher separated the grain from the straw. The grain was hauled away in grain wagons pulled by horses and hand scooped into a storage bin on the farm. The straw was blown into one enormously big straw pile. That particular day, Dad parked our ’41 Ford in the field close to the thrashing machine and went with the gang to bring in bundles. I heard my uncle say that our ford was going to be in the way where it was parked, so I quickly volunteered to move it. I don’t remember my uncle grinning to himself, but he certainly must have. I had never driven a car in my life, the only thing that made me so sure that I could move it was that I knew a car was made to drive, after all it had to have moved to bring us to Grandpa‘s! I remember turning the key, pressing the starter button and the ford started. Off we went with a lurch and a bounce, kind of like a ship on rough waters. Every once in a while, when I stretched my neck out tall, my eyes could see where I was going. The ford was a manual or stick shift but I didn’t use any of that at all, whatever gear she was in when dad parked her is the gear we lurched forward in.
I had no idea where out of the way was, or when I had finished hopping that fun car far enough. So I simply continued moving forward through the prairie grass, bobbing up and down like a hunting dog. I did it! I did it! Our ford was no longer in anyone’s way and that really made me feel important!

“I drove the car into the garage last night.”
“Why in truth, I couldn’t recommend Joe more highly.”
“I must have just caught a glimpse of what you’re thinking.”
“To get there from here, you’d have to go straight up and a mile East.”
“Suddenly, everybody was looking at me.”
I’m sure this list is endless, can you think of some?

When the phone on the counter began to ring
You boldly took action as though it was King
“I was here first“ began to crumble and fall
I would soon lose my turn to the caller that called

Ok, so it’s not very often I come to your store
But let me assure you I’ve been here before
I question future visits I’ll have to say
If when I come in, I get treated this way

You could have said, “Excuse me sir, please hold”
And come listen to my reasons for coming unfold
Evidently there was one thing that you couldn’t see
The customer you left hanging was me

And if I’m at the check-out ready to pay
Don’t look at me and say,
“Did you find everything OK today?”
Or if you must, please wait until I’ve walked away!