Hood Surfing Cowboy Style

There are four things you need to have with you at all times to be a farmer/rancher/cowboy.
First thing is a pair of CeeTee pliers. You could probably build the space shuttle with this handy tool.
Second thing is a pocket knife. You usually got your first one a couple years before kindergarten, and never really understood why you had to leave it home the first day of school.
Third is a lariat. Unlike the first two, you couldn't keep this one in your pocket. But still it needed to be somewhere nearby. I can remember the cats running when they'd see me coming with the rope. I don't remember actually catching one, but I sure tried.
Fourth is a length of baler twine. This one was optional on being in the pocket or nearby.
Sooner or later, there will be a story to show the value of each of these necessary items.
This story begins with bowling. My dad loved bowling. As far back as I can remember he was always on a bowling team. Yes, he always had the goofy bowling shirt. The ones with the team members name on the front and the big billboard advertisement on the back of the teams sponsor. Unlike Nascar, the sponsor just provided the shirt, not money to pay the weekly league dues. Over the years he had started several different bowling teams. So there is a closet somewhere at my moms house with shirts that say "Richmond Meat Locker", "Peoples State Bank" and the like.
Growing up, dad would take us to youth bowling. This particular Saturday was Eldons Bowling in Garnett. They were on their way home to the farm, which was three miles east and a mile and a half north of Richmond, when dad decided to go check on our cattle out west of town.
Even though gas was less than thirty cents a gallon at the time, you didn't waste anything, so it made perfect sense to drive the mile west to the pasture before going home.
Cattle are a lot smarter than they're given credit for. Driving into the pasture in the old SixtyEight Chevy Impala, the cattle just ignore the car. They know there isn't any bales of hay or feed in a car.
To bring the cows up, my dad used a call signal that they all knew. Whether whistled or blowing on the car horn, One long and two Shorts. Most people my age or younger probably don't have a clue as to what that means. It comes from back in the days of party line telephones. When you would get a call, every ones phone on the line would ring. You knew who it was for by the pattern of rings. Ours was one long ring and two short rings.
This day, like everyday, the signal on the horn brought the cows up near the old barn on the property.
I can't recall what the reason was, but one calf needed to be separated from the herd. Probably some type of doctoring needed to be done.
There was a corral by the barn, not the OK corral, but maybe should have been because the stand off was about to begin. No matter what they tried, they couldn't separate this calf from the herd and get it into the corral. Working cattle on foot usually required more than two people. They would get the calf up close to the gate on the corral, then it would dash off before entering the pen. After several tries of this, and being stubborn, "not going to let a stupid calf whoop us", now comes in item number three, the rope.
Every vehicle we had, had at least one rope in it. Either behind the seat of a truck or in the trunk of a car.
You can't rope a calf on foot when you can't get closer than two thirds the length of the rope. This case its fifteen foot.
Bright idea,,, lets put Eldon on the hood of the car with the rope and drive up by the calf and just drop the noose over its head! What could go wrong?
Now picture this, a gangly fourteen year old sitting on the hood of a car, his feet in high top converse tennis shoes anchored on the front bumper, left hand down holding onto the front lip of the hood, right hand twirling a rope overhead and dad driving a car out across a pasture after a calf. What could be more old west than this sight?
Here comes the flaw in the master plan. If you've ever been to a calf roping competition, they don't goose the calf to make it run out of the shoot like lightning. Its scared of the horse and the rope whistling over the cowboys head. What do you suppose is going through this little calf's mind when there is a three hundred horse power v-8 coming after it. You guessed it, the calf took off like a rocket. Not to be out done by a calf, the old impala starts gaining speed across the pasture.
Pastures aren't as smooth as they look. By now the old car is getting its shocks tested. You can't actually see air under the tires but its getting close. There's a cloud of dust and by now Eldons not twirling the rope but holding on with both hands. The car gets up close enough to rope the calf, Eldon begins to lift the rope one more time and just at that second, the calf veers left. I guess dads caught up in the chase and is thinking he's on a horse and takes a sharp left after the calf. The front tires of the car are throwing dirt and prairie grass ten foot in the air... Well as the calf and car veer left, Eldon veers right, rolling across the prairie, rope still in hand. This now has my dad more scared than the calf. Eldon gets up, dusts himself off, not hurt to bad. He's limping a little but still breathing. That's the end of the car rodeo for the day. Dad takes Eldon home to tell the story and loads the horse up in the trailer and heads back out west to rope the calf like should have been done two hours earlier.
So maybe this isn't the best example of why the rope should be in the trunk of the car.