RSS 2.0 FeedOne-Armed Boy
Back in the 1930’s when times were hard and harder, an important entertainment in many western counties was the rodeo. It would usually take place at the county seat and draw folks in from miles around. At one such rodeo, along with the bull riding, bronco bucking, cattle roping and horse riding, there was a much anticipated event open to all boys under the age of sixteen (gender equity had yet to become an issue). This event was the calf-wrestling contest.
Once all the boys who signed up for the event were let into the arena, a small group of calves was then let loose with them. The idea was for a boy to grab onto a calf and wrestle it to the ground. If he were successful and brought the calf down on its side and held it there for a specified amount of time, he would be given that calf to take home. This was no small reward, especially in those lean times, and there were far more boys than calves.
Now a calf could easily weigh 200 pounds and was a tough, well-muscled animal with absolutely no interest in being wrestled to the ground. In fact, terrified by the cheering crowd and the pursuing boys, the calves would struggle mightily to remain upright.
One of the boys waiting to compete in this event had only one arm. Several years ago he lost an arm to a combine. When this boy came up to get his number, the judges said they were sorry but that it would be too dangerous for him to compete having only the one arm as he did. The boy remonstrated that he worked his ranch just fine with one arm and that it wasn’t fair to be treated as if he were disadvantaged when he didn’t see himself as being so. It should be up to him to decide what was too dangerous, not the judges, since he would be living the rest of his life with one arm and would always have to make these decisions. The judges responded to his spirit and after some deliberation decided he could compete.
The boys milled about in the arena, some making laughing remarks within the one-armed boy’s hearing that such a boy could not bring a calf down. The one-armed boy made no response. When the calves were released, there was a great commotion as they ran bawling, bucking and mewling among the boys. Some boys grabbed onto a calf only to be thrown off immediately. Others hung on for a few minutes but hadn’t the strength to control the animal and were dragged about in the mud until they gave up. More than one felt sharp hooves dig into their legs or back or had their body slammed into the walls of the arena. Nonetheless, one-by-one the calves were wrestled down, and boys were awarded the animals to the cheers of the crowd.
To the crowd’s amazement when a single calf was left, it was held by the one-armed boy. He had grabbed hold of the animal from the start and now with his feet was fighting off the other boys trying to take the calf from him. When the other boys realized they were being watched and judged by the audience, they left the arena to the one-armed boy and the calf he clung to.
The one-arm boy had great strength in his arm but without the advantage of an opposing arm could not throw the calf over to the ground. The calf sensed that once he rid himself of this human burden there would be no other to take his place. The boy knew that once he was thrown off, there would be no possibility of regaining his hold and that all his effort would have been in vain.
For a few seconds they stood still, locked in a muddy embrace in the center of the arena, each considering the possibilities, or so it seemed. Then the calf bawled mightily and began to drag the boy through the mud and manure of the arena all the while bucking, kicking and twisting his neck and shoulders, hoping to free himself. The boy held on with equal determination and dug his heels into the earth as best he could to slow the animal.
The audience having only now become aware of the true contest going on in front of them fell silent. Many of them knew hardship and working against the odds and saw what was happening as a metaphor for the obstacles they faced in their everyday lives; though they never would have said such a thing. They gained a community of spirit from watching the battle between the one-armed boy and the calf, and one after another they cried out, “Hold on! Hold on! Hold on!” until the entire audience, including the judges as well as the boys who had competed against him, was chanting this call, perhaps as much to themselves as to the one-armed boy.
The boy took heart from their chant and did indeed hold on all the tighter. The calf, however, seemed to respond with equal vigor and now began to run to the walls of the arena to slam the boy against them. Time and again the calf would bring the boy into the walls with a sickening thud and then drag him against the surface, trying to scrape him off his body. The boy was bleeding from the abrasions, mightily bruised from the impacts and in pain from the kicking hooves but still he held on.
Now, seeing this contest continue, the audience began to worry for the boy and wonder if they had done wrong in encouraging him when the odds were so against him. So, first the women, many with mother-tears in their eyes, began to call out “Let go! Let go! Let go!” And then the audience as a whole took up the call because now they saw a hopeless cause, and they didn’t want to feel responsible for harm coming to the boy. The boy heard this new call, and it added to his burden of pain and exhaustion but still he held on.
The calf, learning that he couldn’t dislodge the boy by hitting him against the walls, bent his head shoulders down and pressed the boy into the mud and manure and began to push him forward to the center of the ring. The audience couldn’t bear this and as one they called out louder, now practically in a panic, “Let go! Let go! Let go!” But of course the boy would not
The calf soon stood exhausted in the middle of the arena. The boy had his arm wrapped around his neck, his head pressed against his flank, his knees in the mud. Three of the judges came toward them, two of them with father-like tears wetting their eyes. The boy shouted at them to leave him be. He wasn’t giving up. He was going to win this calf. But the judges ignored his protests and pried his arm off the calf (It took two them to do so.) and held him and turned him around for the audience to honor with its cheers. “We just couldn’t take it anymore,” the judges told the boy. “We just couldn’t take it. You have won your calf more than any other.”