Icebreaker

As I was chopping through the layers of ice on the stock tank this morning, it dawned on me that a lot has changed over the past 50-plus years since I first made my mark on the Four Corners Ranch ( so aptly named because our ranch includes Crowley, Lincoln, Pueblo, and El Paso Counties within its boundaries).Over the years, that same type of ice has been used to make smooth, tasty homemade ice cream--in the dead of winter. Many of the stock tanks have changed appearances, and even new ones have been welcomed to the ranch, but their purpose has remained the same--supply the precious resource of water to our livestock. That resource also provided sources of recreation for my brother and me when we were growing up. Clad in shorts, a t-shirt, and cowboy boots, we'd ride our horses to a tank for a cool dip on a hot summer's day. We'd spend hours splashing and thrashing in those tanks--not once thinking about germs, possible (gasp!) deadly diseases we could catch, the effects of cattle occasionally licking us to check us out...the list is endless. I just celebrated another birthday last week so that means I'm still on this Earth to tell my story. I didn't get some mysterious disease from swimming in dirty stock tanks; nor did I die because I didn't wear a safety helmet while riding my horse, including the time we cleared a five-wire barbed wire fence (unexpectedly, I might add). So what's my point? Could it be our society has become so engrossed in "bubble wrapping" our kids that they don't know what it's like to get dirty, to use their imagination, or to simply be kids? I ate enough dirt when I was growing up that I might have sprouted a gizzard within (haven't checked lately). But it didn't hurt me any. I wasn't sick much, so maybe that was the key. And I loved those warm, summer days of swimming in the stock tanks. Believe it or not, I even admire the beauty of chopping through the thick ice on these frosty morns...even if it's just trying to, as my dad used to say, get a hole big enough to drop a straw through for the cows to drink from. Happy trails...