After moving to Colorado, my sense of adventure was squashed for a little while. The move and all the excitement of a new place and new setting was enough to ease my desire for adventure. It was only a short period of my life, and it wouldn’t take long until I grew bored with my surroundings and went out to adventure and experience more.
We moved into a small house close to the center of Colorado Springs and I started at a new school there. I was lost! I was the “new kid” and had a weird accent and wasn’t readily accepted by the other kids. As is with any new kid, fear limited my quest for excitement.
My dad went to work, opened a new practice and my mom continued with the house wife gig and although we were in a different place, out life wasn’t much different than when we lived in Texas…
No matter where ya are, there ya are!
After a short time in this house and a few troubled times that come with any transition into something new, my parents found a new neighborhood on the North side of town and we moved again.
This place was amazing! We were one block from a barbed wire fence that had a vast amount of space just beyond it. No houses, just Colorado, rolling prairie land. Man, what a place!
It wasn’t long before I was back to my adventurous ways and often times found myself standing at that fence and looking out into that prairie land and wondering what kind of adventures laid beyond. I was enrolled at a new school and it was a new kind of setting. Year round school, open format teaching, four classes in one classroom and petition walls and bookcases that separated us.
As I explained, it was tough to have friends then because it seemed we were always on differing schedules. In year round schools, the semesters are broken up with vacations spread throughout the year. I didn’t do very well in this setting and public education was always a struggle for me. Too many limitations, too much activity, the structure was not fitting for a personality like mine, and I was resistant to almost everything offered in school.
I didn’t like sports, never had a “real” competitive drive, had no desire to be involved in school activities and ALWAYS hated people telling me what to do. It was here that I think I really stated to bow up against the “system.” I was fighting tooth and nail to do things my way, and at that age, you aren’t supposed to do things your way!
4th grade was ok, 5th grade got harder; I started to clash with my teachers and become rebellious and was a constant “troubled kid.” I was no stranger to the principal’s office and was no stranger to the paddle that was used as common place in those days. No matter, no punishment was enough to stop me from living life on my terms in those days. I knew what was best for me and I would do whatever it took to experience that.
My sisters and I were 3-4 years apart and although we are close now, like my sister explains it, in those days, and through my teen years, we were living on different planets. I was the troubled kid in the family and much of the attention was spent on me to keep me in line. My sisters were always compliant and “good girls” so my parents focused much on my problems and how to rectify those problems.
It wasn’t long before it was advised that I get a counselor to manage my behavior and I was assigned to Gary Cosel… He was a great guy…Cared, used every tool he could think of, but I would have none of that, I knew what I wanted, and nothing was going to stop me from getting it. As a result, I started to do things in spite of guidance from Gary, my teachers and my parents.
6th grade came along and I had a Teacher named Mr. Plummer. I always liked him but he never took any crap from me. He knew the rules and he would enforce those rules. Although he was tough on me, I always knew he cared and I liked him…I still have great memories of my 6th grade year.
I was always social, but I never formatted to the norms of school. I knew all the kids, got along with most of them, but since I didn’t play sports or get involved with various activities in and out of school, I was a target. I was never “really” bullied, but acceptance was not something I experienced from many of my classmates. Then I connected with one of the oldest friends I have…and we are still friends to this day.
Karen Abshire was her name and we started school together in the 4th grade. We became friends in the sixth and our friendship grew from there.
After elementary school, and then onto Jr. High School, Karen and I stayed friends. We lived just a couple of blocks away from each other and were always playing together and having fun, doing things together, etc…
Karen was always the “smart one” she was pretty, athletic and involved in many things with school. Even though I was the loner type, she was always friendly and caring to me and I loved her like family!
In the 7th grade, I talked Karen into climbing that barbed wire fence with me and we went out into those prairie lands and explored as much as we could.
As they stared to develop our little neighborhood, we would always go and check out the large mounds of dirt piled up to level out the land, go out into the fields and find gullies, caves, ponds, trees…And we had this whole area to ourselves.
I later found out that the area we played in was owned by a man named Pring and the area that we were in beyond that fence was 50k acres….50k acres and one house that sat on a hill overlooking that land.
This too was a different era and we had a lot of freedom. As a a matter of fact, as long as I wasn’t getting in trouble, it was encouraged for us kids to stay outside and play until the sun went down.
Karen and I had all kinds of adventures. We found an area in a gully where there were stores and stores of old bones….Bleached white and every so often, a new carcass would end up in the mix. We had both seen a TV show where they said they thought Mastodons had gone to die. They said that when they would get ill, they would go to a specific place and die and that’s why all the bones were there.
So this place, we named “Where the cows go to die” and looking back now, it was probably just a place where the ranchers drug dead cows found out in the fields for the scavengers to eat…There were skulls and bones, horns and skin…it was amazing to us and like a gold mine!
There was also a hill we had to cross to get to this place and we would always find petrified wood on the hill. This place we named “Petrified Mountain” and would often times take the pieces of petrified wood home to put in our rooms.
As we got braver, we would go further into this place and one day, we walked over a hill and saw a corral. It was a cattle pen corral. Had chutes where they brand cattle, storage pens, a covered barn area and a huge windmill with a large metal tank that was full of water.
As the wind would blow, the blades on the windmill would slowly squeak, squeak, squeak as they turned, causing a pump arm to go up and down and pump water into the tank for the livestock.
When we got to the top of that hill, we saw the barn area, quickly darted behind the bushes and watched the area to make sure there were no people. We knew we weren’t supposed to be over in this are and had dodged ranch vehicles a few times.
We carefully scoped the area and then looked at each other smiling and said
“LETS GO!”
We made our way to the “corral” as we called it, darting behind bushes as we moved forward to ensure not being seen and when we got close, we realized it was safe and went exploring.
We rummaged around in the pens, in the chutes and then made our way to the windmill. We reached into the tank and the water was freezing! It was crystal clear but had a few black waterbugs swimming on the bottom with some green algae as their hiding place. I reached my hand in, took a handful and drank it…It was better than any water I had ever tasted and I excitedly turned to Karen and said
“Try it!”
She was hesitant but eventually tried it and turned to me and said …
“MMMMMMM, that is really good!”
After we looked around for a bit, Karen went one way, I went another and we were exploring the area around the stalls…Then I heard Karen yell….
“BRAAAAAD…Come over here…quick!!”
I turned, rushed over to where she was, and when I got to her, I could see a smile on her face and she was holding an old horseshoe in her hands….
“Look, there are horses here!!”
Karen was a horse FREAK… She had every kind of little horse figurine and horse book in her bedroom…She collected anything horses….She loved them. Me, I didn’t care one way or the other.
Karen took the horse shoe and we explored a little more and knew we had to get back home. We were only 12 years old at this time and were at least 2-3 miles from our houses out in the “fields” (this was what we named the prairie area). We started to make our way home and all Karen would talk about was this horseshoe and the possibility of finding horses. Because she was excited, I was excited. I didn’t know anything bout horses.
About a week passed and Karen came to my house with a mess of macramé rope…the kind you use for crafts… She was so excited and started to explain to me how she had made a “halter” and now we could go catch a horse…
Hey, I am game!! So we climbed the fence and started to look for them…
One day went by, nothing, 2 days, nothing, a week, nothing…Then one day, we went as far as we had ever gone, crossed another fence and climbed a hill. We reached the top of the hill, there they were….HORSES!! 10-15 of them!
We darted behind a bush and started to watch them…
“Oh my God Brad, aren’t they beautiful?”
And as I watched them graze, move around each other, the wind blowing their manes and tails, she was right, they were beautiful…They weren’t just beautiful, they were magnificent!
I looked at Karen and said…
“What do we do now?”
She smiled, looked at me and said….
“Well, let’s make sure no one is around and then we will just walk up to them.”
What?? Walk up to them, did she see how big these animals were…I wasn’t too sure about this!
We scouted around, looked all directions and realized we were all alone…We stood up and started to walk towards the horses, and one spotted us… The horse looked our way, mane and tail blowing in the wind and then nickered in our direction. This alerted the other horses and slowly, each one in the herd turned towards us as we walked up…
“Karen, are you sure about this??”
“Brad, they are wonderful animals, you don’t have anything to worry about.”
A few of the horses moved towards us and the original one that spotted us was now standing in a line with 3-4 others looking at us as we made our way to them. I looked over at Karen; she had that halter in her hand and a smile bigger than I had ever seen on her face… I let her take the lead.
She walked right up to the horses and stood right in front of the one that originally spotted us…he was HUGE and made Karen look so small. Karen stuck her hand out, I was about a foot or two behind her and the horse stretched her neck to Karen’s hand…
She leaned her head down, and took a huge sniff of her hand…Her nostrils flared and I could see the veins in her nose as she inhaled Karens smell. The breeze blew my way and this wonderful scent grasped my attention…
“What is that smell?” I asked “That really smells good.”
“That’s what horses smell like Brad” and that sage, dirt, earthy smell of horses filled my nose… I was amazed!
She started to pet the horse and then I eased my way up with her encouragement…
“Come on Brad, they are nice…Pet her!”
I stuck my hand out; she turned her head to my hand, took a deep breath and then snorted it out, getting horse boogers all over my hands!
“Ewwwww….that is so nasty!”
Karen giggled…”No, that great…there is nothing nasty about horses!”
I started to pet the horse and became at ease with her really quickly…
The other horse, seeing we were no threat, turned and went back to grazing. I look back now and think how crazy we were…if one of those horses would have stomped us, we were a loooong way from home and we could have died…Not the first or the last time I had made such a choice.
Karen looked at me and said…
“OK, I am going to put the halter on her”
I nervously nodded in agreement, and she eased her home made halter over the horses head. She had made it where there was a small portion of the rope to lead the horse with and she said
“Let’s go back to the corral with her”
And I followed in amazement…
As we walked, the other horses saw what was going on and followed suit…They started to slowly walk with us and now, so it seemed, we were part of the herd.
We got the horse to the corral, walked her in and the others slowly followed, snorting and nickering as they made their way into the pens. We spent an hour or two just petting and stroking the horses. The one Karen had captured she had now claimed as her own and named her Mischief…how fitting!
She was black, had two white stocking and a blaze on her head…She was beautiful!
I, not wanting to be alone in this adventure spotted a nice sorrel horse with a blaze on his head, walked up to him and he immediately accepted me…He sniffed me, rubbed his head on my chest, almost knocking me over and I named him Sunny.
I told Karen it was getting late and we should start to head back to the house and hesitantly she agreed. We let the horses out of the pens and headed back home. We made it home, and this started a very cool adventure in our young lives.
We made many trips out to see those horses and spent a lot of time with them. We got to a point where she had taught me how to make the halters and it wasn’t long before we were trying to ride them.
I remember one time, it was just her and I, in the pens, with the herd, and I got caught between two of the horses…Sunny was one of them.
Sunny turned quickly, too quickly for me to get out of the way, and kicked… He caught me right on my upper thigh, about an inch from my crotch on my right leg. I thought for sure I was dying!
Karen ran to me…
“Brad, are you ok?”
And I was reeling in pain….I couldn’t speak and was rolling around on the ground.
“Brad, Brad, are you ok?”
And I mumbled….
“Yeah, I think my leg is broken” and moaned as I rolled around...
Scared to death, fear in her eyes, Karen said…
“Are you sure…is it really broken?”
And after a few minutes the pain started to go away and Karen helped me stand…It wasn’t broken but man, it hurt!
I pulled my pants down right there to look at the spot and already it was huge, purple and no mistaking it was a hoof print on my leg…Man, I was going to have to hide this from Mom and Dad!
Again as I look back, I am not sure how a full size horse, kicking at a 12 year old child was only able to hit my thigh and not get me in the face…
“But for the Grace of God go I” I guess…And how true that is for much of my life!
Karen and I stayed friends, hung out a lot together and even snuck out a time or two so we could go play with the horses…. Then one day, it happened!
We had gotten to the point where now, we were riding our horses out in the fields, away from the security of the pens… A whole new freedom!!
One day, while riding around, a truck came up behind us..I didn’t see it, Karen yelled…
“RUUUNNNNN!”
Bailed off her horse and took off running towards our neighborhood…It was too late for me!
I jumped ff my horse and about three steps into my run, a young ranch hand had me by the nape of my neck…
“What the hell are you doing out her kid? You guys are the ones on our horses huh…We have been looking for you a loooong time! Come with me!”
And he drug me, toes barely on the ground, by the back of my shirt to his truck.
“Boy, you know what we do with horse thieves don’t cha?”
And I had images of those western movies and was sure they were going to hang me…I was terrified!
He kept on until I started to cry and then bawl, and he said…
“Where do you live boy?”
I told him….he asked …
“What’s your phone number and your parents name?”
I told him…
He said…
“Get on home now boy, I will be calling your parents, bet you will get a good whoopin for this” and he let me go…
As I walked across the fields, I was whimpering thinking about the trouble I was going to get in… School, stealing mail, sneaking out of the house…I was in BIIIIGGGG trouble.
I made my way to Karen’s house and she eagerly met me at the door…
“What happened?”
I went through the whole story, told her how they were going to hang me but I talked them out of it and said
“Man, my parents are going to kill me!”
I went home and they were waiting…My parents were mad and I was grounded for FOREVER and got a spanking… This was the end of our horse days for me and Karen.
Karen and I eventually ended up on different schedules, I continued getting into trouble, Karen’s parents wouldn’t let her play with me anymore but we stayed friends, seeing each other at school and in the neighborhood together…
We had many more adventures growing up together, MANY! But it was these adventures that sealed our bond. Karen excelled in school, played sports, got involved with student council and all the things “good kids” do, and I, well, I still hated the norms and limits and I went on with my troubled ways.
We stayed friends throughout Jr. High School, After getting kicked out of school and sent off to boarding school, Karen wrote me and sent me care packages with cookies and things…
When I got kicked out of there, and eventually ended up at high school a year behind her now, we still stayed friends. Into our teen years, we would call and visit each other from time to time and always enjoyed our time together. I met her soon to be Husband who was in the Air Force Academy and even went to her wedding. She had three kids and lives a “normal” life by society standards…
To this day, we still talk at least once a year and stay in touch through e-mails. I care about her and her family as much as did back then and I hope it never changes.
She has lived a completely different life than I have but has always been there for me when I needed her and I am so grateful for our friendship…Even in my hardest of times, Karen always saw the great things in me…Even when I couldn’t.
Maybe it was Karen’s influence that allowed me to see the greatness in people. I don’t know, but she has always been a very giving and kind person, always seeing the best in people and things…An inspiration!
If you walk through this life and at the end can count your true friends on one hand, you are blessed….I, because of Karen and our friendship, am blessed!
Karen, if you ever read this, I am grateful for having you in my life…Thanks for always being there for me!
“Even though we’ve changed and we’re all finding our own place in the world, we know that when the tears fall or the smile spreads across our face, we’ll come to each other because no matter where this crazy world takes us, nothing will ever change so much to the point we’re not still friends”
~Author Unknown~
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