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As I scan the crowded dance hall, I wonder to myself; how on earth did I get into this?!
I quick check my make-up in my compact mirror, and my mind wanders back to that summer.
We certainly did have so much fun. Suddenly I feel a pair of hands on my shoulders.
"Hey, Jana, It's been a long time; relax, you look wonderful!"
"Hey, Walt, gosh I've missed you, you look great too." I say as I straighten out my dress.
I have never felt comfortable being dressed up. I guess that's what you get from growing up on a ranch.
That summer my folks announced that we would be taking on a hired hand to help with the horses.
My first thought was.. ‘Why? We can handle our own horses.’
In the past one or two of my Uncles had helped with round-up, and training the horses.
My second thought was. ‘Oh great, another person I have to train to work with the horses.’
I nearly blew the roof when I found out the new hand was going to be a city slicker.
I'm a country girl, I go to a small school with about two hundred other high school kids in a town five miles away from our ranch. The new ranch hand was going to be from Galveston; a good one and a half hour drive away.
I just couldn't figure out why this kid was coming to my ranch, from the city, to take care of my horses. In all of my seventeen years we never had a hired hand,(besides my Uncles), so why now?
I was in the middle of ranting and raving about this to my mom when she told me to calm down, and then she explained why we were hiring this particular hand.
The city slicker's name was Walter Fitzpatrick. He lived with his divorced mom, and she wanted him to get out of the house and work this summer. He ended up at my ranch because his mom and my mom were friends in high school.
It was supposedly a win-win situation; for everyone except me.
I'll grant my mom this; we did have a new horse we needed to get broken in, and another we needed to get ready for the barrel races in the rodeo.
So, yes we might have needed some help, but why a city kid? Then I consoled myself with the fact that the kid; err, Walter: would probably find ranch work too hard, give up and go home.
Two weeks after my folks made an announcement; they had added insult to injury by making me and my older brother Kenny go pick him up at the greyhound station in town.
I sulked the whole ten minute ride in the truck.
Then we come to find out there was going to be a twenty minute wait; they had been held up by a severe thunder storm. I was steaming; how dare he make me wait.
I was grumpy and I needed to get out of the cramped truck. I told my brother that I was going to pick up some groceries at Pat's Grocery Market.
I picked up some supplies that we needed at the ranch, and some other things we haven't had at the ranch for a while. Pancake mix, bulk candy, extra sugar cubes, all in all I spent sixty dollars and got three bags worth of groceries.
I loaded the groceries into the back of the truck. After I re-snapped the tarp, I hopped back into the truck cab, and I switched the radio to my favorite station.
I look up just in time to see a gorgeous guy running across the street toward our truck; trying to escape the rain. Then before I could say or do anything; he trips and falls face-first into a mud puddle.
Without thinking I jumped out of our truck and helped him up.
As we walked back toward the truck, he blurts out his name was Walt, and he needed to get to the Grayson ranch.
He was so embarrassed when I told him who we were.
We laughed the whole ride home. All three of us crammed into that little truck cab.
I tried not to stare at him, but he sure was cute, about six foot tall, one hundred and eighty pounds, dirty blond hair, crystal blue eyes hidden under brown frame glasses, he was wearing a mud splattered t-shirt and jeans. Sweeeet!!
When we got to our ranch I helped him with his bags, and got him settled into the guest room.
Then he took a shower, he said he wanted to get cleaned up before dinner.
When he walked into our country style dining room, he was wearing a white dress shirt, and loose fit blue jeans.
I felt so underdressed; wearing a grungy t-shirt and tattered, no brand jeans; my greasy tan hair back in a pony tail.
My mom was fixing some of her world famous spare ribs in the kitchen.
My dad was due home from the range any second.
The only thing we had planned for the day was I would give him a tour of the homestead. Tomorrow we would start working for real.
It was a very uncomfortable fifteen minutes as we waited at the table for my dad. Just as things were particularly awkward my dad walked in. He introduced himself to Walt, and after he washed up we had a delicious dinner.
Over dinner I told him about our horses, their personalities, favorite foods, in general their quirks.
My mom managed to direct the conversation toward finding out a little more about Walt.
He told us that he enjoyed watching old movies, and playing football.
He was the quarterback on his team; ironically though he had played running-back on the regional team. He was so upset when he found out that he had been beaten out for the quarterback position by his cross-town rival.
I went to sleep that night looking forward to the next day.
The morning began at dawn by getting hay for, and grooming the horses. We brushed and washed, and checked their horse shoes.
I was impressed by Walt, although he was a little groggy, he was eager to learn and to help. He was awfully strong for a city slicker; even for a football quarterback.
We finally came in for breakfast at eight. Scrambled eggs and toast, my favorite. By now Walt was fully awake, and he ate breakfast eagerly.
I told him to relax, and take his time; we did have work to do, but we had all day to do it.
At eight forty-five we headed out to exercise the horses. We had four horse that we owned, and three others we earned extra money by boarding. I let Walt ride the three older and better trained horses. I, myself rode the less well trained and more temperamental horses.
Usually my brother, Kenny exercised the horses with me, but I wanted Walt to get used to our routine.
Besides, the round up would be coming up in two weeks, this would be the first time Kenny could get a chance to actively participate in a round up; my dad would occasionally let us ride along, but this is the first time my dad actually let one of us work in the round-up.
I have to admit I was a little jealous of my brother, but not as much as I was proud of him.
So, with Kenny out on the range with my dad, that left Walt to spot for me.
Sheba was a spirited horse, to say the least. She had a nasty habit of bucking off anyone who tried to ride her, no matter how many sugar cubes or carrots you gave her. She's the only horse that I wear a plastic bicycle helmet, and knee and elbow pads to ride.
Most of our horses were temperamental when we got them, but none were as stubborn as Sheba. Once we would brake her in and get her trained, there was no reason to believe that she would be any different than any of our other horses.
I padded up, and warned Walt that Sheba was very capable of bucking me off; once she had even bucked off my dad (that was the first and last time he would ride her).
We had decided I would break her in when she had actually let me ride her for a couple of seconds before she bucked me off.
I mounted Sheba, and braced myself for a bumpy ride. It must have been a whole twenty seconds, and she started jumping, it didn't take two jumps and I was laying on my back, staring up into Walt's blue eyes.
"She got me didn't she?!?" I groaned to Walt.
"Yep." was his only response.
I told Walt to hold on to Sheba, while I laid on the ground for a few more seconds. I needed to get my courage back up, before trying to ride her again. With Sheba I had a three strike rule, and I just got strike one.
Oh well, the game must go on. I took a deep breath and got on her again. This time it was twenty-five seconds before; boom; strike two. Again I stare up into Walt's eyes, as he held on to Sheba and I got my bearings. One last time, and I would put her back in the stable. I always did this just before lunch, so I could rest afterward.
I set my foot in the stirrup and swung over. Sheba let out a whinny, and started to buck, it was fifteen seconds of bucking before she finally threw me off.
"I don't know why I even bother." I whined to Walt as he held on to Sheba, trying to stop her from stepping on me.
We walked Sheba back to her stable, and headed in for lunch, since it was about noon. The day was over half done and I was already exhausted. I told my mom that I was going to take a nap after we ate.
This was not too unusual, because ranch work was hard, and it took lots of energy. We usually allowed for rest time in our work schedule.
After eating our sandwiches, Walt and I both took naps. I woke up a half hour later refreshed.
I walked into Walt's room to wake him up: he was still sleeping, and he looked so peaceful. I waited about a minute before I decided to wake him up.
It was two-thirty when we headed out.
I wanted to take time to clean and polish the horses saddles, with leather polish, that took me a half hour. After that I put some extra time in practicing on Miriam, the horse that I would be riding in the barrel races at the county rodeo.
Walt and I set up some empty feed barrels, and Walt agreed to time me as I ran Miriam. I won't bother telling you the specific times, but let me put it this way; I needed to practice more. So I did, and I must have practiced for about forty-five minutes total.
It was time to do the chore that I hated most; cleaning out the waste troths. By the time we were done we were both hungry and desperately needed showers.
Mostly though, I needed to be away from him, so I could get my blood pressure down.
I had never been so self-conscious in my life. I thought about every step I took, every word I said, everything thing I did. I couldn't take it much more, I just wasn't used to that kind of pressure. At least I had a couple minutes to myself, before dinner.
It's not that I didn't like being by him; it's just that I would always get so nervous.
Luckily we didn't have anything planned for after dinner, except to watch T.V. I knew Walt would go for the weight training equipment we had set-up downstairs in the basement.
We had stir-fried chicken for dinner that night.
My mom volunteered Walt and I to do the dishes.
Once we were done he asked me if I wanted to go outside and toss the football while it was still light out, of course I said yes. We laughed and talked while we tossed the ball, before I knew it, it was dark, and we had to go in.
So this became the routine; Wake up, feed and groom the horses, come in for breakfast, exercise the horses, try to break Sheba in, go in for lunch, train with Miriam, do any other odd jobs or chores, clean out the stalls, go in for dinner, toss the football, and then go to sleep.
This continued for two weeks, until my dad asked us to join them on the round-up; observing only.
Even though it was only to watch, it was still a big deal. At the ranch we only had round-up twice a year, in early December, and in mid-June. I had only observed three round-ups at that point in my life, all had been in mid-June, because I was always in school when the December round-up took place.
This was going to be a lot of work, but also a lot of fun. We had to pick the cattle we wanted to bring in to take to market, brand the calves, take a "head-count", and check the over-all health of the herd. I was kind-of looking forward to letting Walt see me in "action". I was also looking forward to seeing my brother work on his first round-up.
Walt and I had two days to pack up for the actual round-up. We would be out on the range for four days and three nights. In the four day period we would sweep the perimeter of the fenced in grazing area of the ranch, moving the herds to better grazing areas.
My father and brother had been out on the range for the two weeks prior, to find out where the herds were, and to make other general preparations.
They had, however, not spent the night; that is left primarily for when the actual round-up takes place.
The two days went by quickly, between my regular chores, packing, and preparing Walt for what he was getting into, I didn't have a whole lot of time for much else.
Finally, it was the day of the round-up. My dad and my brother took our two work horses, I let Walt ride Miriam, and I rode one of the horses that we were boarding.
Once Sheba was broken in we would ride her in the round-ups, but that year she wasn't broken in, in time.
We started out at dawn, as usual, however, this morning we ate breakfast shortly before we left. We rode for most of the day, my mom had packed a basket of sandwiches and "other goodies" some of which we ate for lunch.
Then we rode some more, and more, mended some broken fence, rode some more, and finally we set up camp for the night.
A long the way Walt and I talked, I gave him a little of the history of the area, and in general we just talked. At this point I was feeling a little more relaxed around Walt, although my heart rate was still pretty hard to control.
That first night was clear and cool and sleeping underneath stars was wonderful. Walt and I laid on our backs and stared up at the stars, picking out the constellations we knew. The camp fire kept us warm that summer night, it also kept the coyotes away. I woke the next morning to the smell of breakfast cooking. After a delicious breakfast we started to ride on the round-up again.
It was a full day riding, of course we had several stops included. We also started to target the cattle we wanted to send to market. Walt even got a chance to brand a calf.
Day two went exactly as planned. The third day had started out very much like the day before, but would turn out to be much more interesting. After breakfast we started the "quest" to find a small watering hole. My dad knows our ranch like the back of his hand, but when we got to where the pond was supposed to be, it had dried out.
My dad said, "well, I know that there is a well a couple of acres from here, and we can water the horses there." Unfortunately my father's memory wasn't as good as it used to be. A few hours later we finally found the well, and watered the horses. By that time it was late afternoon.
Then the sky opened up and it started to rain. That was all we needed, to look for hours for water and then be caught in the middle of a down pour.
At first I panicked, because when it rains, it rains in torrents. And that's bad enough, without taking lighting into consideration. I had no idea how we were going to start a fire to dry out and keep warm, much less find a place to sleep.
I soon learned that my father had packed a tent. The problem was, it was only a three person tent. The four of us managed to cram into that little tent, needless to say we had no problem keeping warm, getting to sleep was another story.
We were cramped, warm, and of course, when he does sleep, my brother Kenny snores. That final morning was a sunny one. It was so nice to get out of that tent and stretch out.
Despite the "detours" the round-up was an over-all success. The herd was in general good health, we branded several calves, and rounded-up the cattle that we were going to send to market.
We arrived home that afternoon, and Walt and I immediately decided to take naps. Neither of us had gotten much sleep the night before; being crammed in that little tent wasn't exactly very comfortable.
The next day it would be back to our usual routine. The only change in the normal routine was that I increased my training with Miriam in order to prepare for the rodeo. I was practicing with Miriam for an hour and fifteen minutes each day.
As for Sheba I had all but given up on her. Then one day, after I was thoroughly annoyed, Walt said "Why don't I hold on to her while you try to ride?".
My response was, "Are you sure you won't get trampled?". Walt was insistent. Against my better judgment we tried it. Walt helped me mount Sheba, as normal, then held on to her and steadied her as I tried to ride, to my amazement she let me ride her, for a couple of minutes before she finally threw me off.
At first I couldn't believe it, but then I wondered how.
Walt said with a smile "She likes me, she listens to me. I told her that if she didn't let you ride her I wouldn't visit her anymore. I guess it worked."
It worked indeed, hence forth I have kept a shirt of Walt's to calm Sheba down.
A few days later Walt and I decided to go into town for dinner and a movie. It turns out that Casablanca was playing that night. It was one of Walt's favorite movies. It was nice to get away from the ranch.
I had two weeks of practice before the Independence Day Rodeo and Carnival, and the practice time was steadily increasing, as was intensity of the training.
A night on the town was just the thing that I needed to reenergize and refocus for the competition.
Well, that and the fact it was nice to have a chance to spend an evening solely with Walt (no parents or brother, just Walt). Needless to say, I was totally looking forward to our night on the town.
Walt was nice enough to fill me in on the movie's basic plot-line, and in return I informed him of our Dinner plans, (as I had made them).
The restaurant we were going to eat at was owned by the parents of one my best friends at school. I had eaten there several times before, on a few occasions I had even eaten there with my family. They served the best chicken-fried-steaks in the area. At least I knew the food was going to be good. I warned Walt that the restaurant "Wasn't exactly Gourmet, but it is good".
Another reason I picked the restaurant was that I knew that I wouldn't have to really dress-up; it had a more of a relaxed atmosphere. I wore semi-dressy short and shirt set that I had picked out. Walt wore shorts and a golf shirt; cool, clean, and very cute!!
The night of the date my parents had given me use of the "Family Truck", so we would have transportation into town; the only catch was that I had to wash the truck, but I didn't mind doing that.
It was a ten minute ride into town, and we made it just in time to make our reservations. We both ordered chicken-fried-steaks, which were good as always. We also split an order of onion rings; gosh I love southern cooking.
Then we went to see Casablanca. The theater it was played in was a beautiful old theater, and it just added to romantic atmosphere of the evening. It was as southern/country an evening as a person can have, thoroughly enjoyable. In other words the dinner and movie were wonderful.
The next day it was back to practicing with Miriam and working with Sheba. I had a little more than a week to get ready for the rodeo. The night on the town had given me renewed hope. My times were getting increasingly better, and as my times improved my confidence grew.
Everyone in the family was looking forward to going to the Independence Day Rodeo and Carnival. I was nervous more than anything.
This would be my second year in competition. Last year I had finished fifth, but that was with a horse named Cilantro, my Uncle's horse. This would be my first competition with Miriam.
After another week of hard practicing the day of the barrel riding competition finally came.
I will never forget standing there waiting for my turn to ride, I have rarely, if ever, been that nervous since. I looked at all the people in the stands and that only served to make me more nervous.
I was pretty "freaked-out" by the time Walt came down from where he was sitting in the stands to wish me good luck. I can still remember exactly what he said.
He said, "Jana, calm down, you'll do fine. I know, I watched you practice for the last four weeks, you're good." With that he gave me a smile and a kiss on the cheek. "Go kill 'em" were his final words to me before I rode.
I mounted Miriam and waited for the signal to begin, the whole time I told myself, you can do this, you can do this.
When they opened the gate I, (riding Miriam) took off like a shot, and as I rounded the first barrel I knew my time was good.
I kept pushing Miriam, hoping she could continue "running" at full speed.
As I rounded the last barrel I was confident that I had raced Miriam well.
The race was done, then came the hard part, waiting to see whether my time was any good.
My parents, my brother, and Walt came down from the Grand stands to be with me.
The first words out of Walt's mouth were "that was awesome".
When my time came up I was surprised to discover that I was in first place.
However there were fifteen girls in my age bracket, and I was the tenth to race; there were still five more girls to go, included the defending champion.
Two other girls raced, and when they had finished I was still in first place.
Then came the defending champ, Lisa Kampke. She was good, and I knew she would give me a run for my money. Her horse was an Arabian, specially bred and trained for barrel racing, and she raced him all over the area and had never lost a competition.
I have never seen anyone come out of the starting gate fast as she did, and she continued to preform flawlessly on the rest of the barrel course. By the time she was done I knew I had been beaten.
I wasn't all that upset because I was still "up there" in the standings.
The last two girls went, and neither did terribly well, so I finished a pleasantly surprising second.
I was so proud of myself, and so was everyone else. I had won a two hundred dollar Savings Bond.
Later that night we celebrated my "win" with ice cream at the only ice cream parlor in town. That was a night to remember. I promised myself that I would do it again the next year.
Hopefully Walt would come back to watch me compete again.
I knew that we didn't have much time left together that summer. The first week of August he would return to his home in Galveston, then the week after that he would leave to spend two weeks with his dad, before his school started. At the same time he started football practice. He was excited about that.
We had four weeks left together.
There was a week of relative calm and normalcy. Walt and I worked together, and every night we tossed the football, and rode horses. We enjoyed our time together.
Three weeks earlier we learned that George Strait would be playing a show in a city a half hour drive from the ranch. I'm a big George Strait fan, and he doesn't perform many concerts, so Walt, Kenny, and I jumped at the chance to go see him preform.
I was really looking forward to ending my time with Walt on this kind of note. So two weeks after the rodeo, we made the half hour drive and attended the George Strait concert.
We left at one in the afternoon, after our chores, we arrived there at One thirty, spent some time in town, and saw the Seven thirty concert that night.
It was awesome, George put on a great concert, it was a sell out. It was the "icing on the cake" of that summer.
The last two weeks went quickly. Walt and I spent as much time together as possible, mostly chores and riding the trails around my ranch.
The time finally came to say goodbye. We did our chores that morning and then spent the afternoon together just talking.
We promised to write, Walt even said that if he made all-conference, my family and I were invited to come to Galveston to come watch the game and stay at his mom's Inn.
That evening Kenny, Walt, and I drove into town to the Greyhound Bus station, where the adventure had all started.
I was so sad to see Walt go, but I had a feeling that this would not be the last time I saw him.
I started my Junior year in high school. At the same time Walt had started his Senior year in high school. Kenny was just starting college.
Just a few weeks before Thanksgiving I received a letter from Walt. He had made the All conference Team. My whole family was invited to spend part of our Thanksgiving vacation with Walt and his mom at their Inn. I was in absolute heaven when my mom agreed to let us go as a family.
The letter also mentioned that there would be a dance after the game, and that Walt wanted to be my escort.
When we arrived at their Inn in Galveston Walt's Mom was working the front desk.
She said that this year he had made quarterback; because his cross town rival had graduated the year before. Then she checked us in, and got us settled in to our rooms.
The game was in two days, so we took time to sight see. Then came game day. It was so exciting, I was actually going to see him in action. It was a twenty minute drive to the stadium. We got there an hour early.
It was so cool when they called Walt's name over the speaker system and the crowd went crazy.
The first quarter of the game was so intense. The other team won the coin toss, but barely moved the ball thirty yards. Then Walt got the ball, and the other team played tough defense. They even sacked Walt, but in the end neither team scored in the first quarter.
Second quarter was just as intense, but the other team actually scored, however they missed the point after.
Third quarter the intensity was turned up a notch, and finally our team scored, we even got the point after.
Then there was forth quarter, it was a repeat of first quarter, no one scored. We had won the game by one point.
So this is how I ended up here at this dance, we're celebrating the victory. Walt had run home to change, and I went back to their Inn to change as well. I had just came out of the bathroom when I saw him.
This is the first chance I've had to get to see him face to face since that summer.
Gosh, does he look good, he's a sight for sore eyes. I can't believe I'm here with him. Arm in arm. We're working the room meeting and talking to people.
"Jana, this is Pete, he played tackle this afternoon, Pete this is Jana I worked on her family's ranch summer."
"Hi."
"Hi"
"Jana, how'd you like to dance." Walt asks me.
"Sure, I'd love to." is all I can get out. We make our way across the dance floor.
The song playing finishes, and the DJ starts playing, "Everything I do". This is perfect. It finishes and the DJ is now playing a fast song, I don't recognize it though. Yet another fast song, we're both kind of tired, so Walt and I go for some soda, where we bump into more guys from the football team, thus more introductions.
Oh my gosh, it's nearly eleven. We want to get more dancing in before the evening ends, so we go back out onto the dance floor and dance some more. This is so much fun, even the guys from the loosing team are here enjoying themselves.
This DJ is really good, I haven't had this much fun since the George Strait concert. Speaking of whom, the DJ is now playing one of George's songs and everyone is line dancing.
Ahh, yes, another slow song, it feels so good being in Walt's arms.
What, Last dance, your kidding me, oh well, at least it's another slow song.
"Jana, I love you."
"I love you too, Walt."
The evening is over now. We walk out to the truck and head back to the Inn. The whole truck ride home we hold hands, this is sweet.
Good lord am I tired, I guess I better turn in and get some sleep. I'm meeting Walt for breakfast tomorrow morning. What a day, what a summer.
Good Night.
