Rodeo

Flying U #8

by B.M. Bower

Two days before the Fourth of July a small procession of three automobiles lifted a ribbon of fine gray dust from the road that wound eastward along the edge of the Bear Paw foothills. Far back toward Dry Lake the haze was still slowly settling to earth when the last car passed through the high gate of the Flying U fence and a small, slight man got out and pulled the gate shut, hooked the chain around the post and into a link worn smooth with much use and climbed back beside the driver.

Genres: Westerns

208 pages, Hardcover

First published December 31, 2002

About the author

Bertha Muzzy Sinclair or Sinclair-Cowan, née Muzzy, best known by her pseudonym B. M. Bower, was an American author who wrote novels, fictional short stories, and screenplays about the American Old West. Her works, featuring cowboys and cows of the Flying R Ranch in Montana, reflected "an interest in ranch life, the use of working cowboys as main characters (even in romantic plots), the occasional appearance of eastern types for the sake of contrast, a sense of western geography as simultaneously harsh and grand, and a good deal of factual attention to such matters as cattle branding and bronc busting.

Born Bertha Muzzy in Otter Tail County, MN and living her early years in Big Sandy, Montana, she was married three times: to Clayton Bower, in 1890; to Bertrand William Sinclair,(also a Western author) in 1912; and to Robert Elsworth Cowan, in 1921. Bower's 1912 novel Lonesome Land was praised in The Bookman magazine for its characterization. She wrote 57 Western novels, several of which were turned into films.

Reviews

[Debbie Zapata · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great way to finish off my B. M. Bower adventure! Rodeo was first published in 1929, even though Wiki has it as 1940. It is full of the sparkle I had begun to miss in the books Bower wrote in the mid-thirties, and I was glad to see that.

This is another Happy Family story (one of 11 Bower wrote) but this one deals with the years after our original cowboys had left the ranch for Hollywood and fame in silent movies. Native Son had become a movie star, Pink was a stunt double for a big name actress who appeared with Native Son in his movies, Weary was an actor and stuntman, and Andy directed all the western films they were making.

But Chip and his wife had stayed on the home ranch to run things for the Old Man, and Chip's son Claude was still there as well. Except he got sent off to college and that is what helped create some of the problems our gang faced in this story.

Claude was called Kid in all the other books he was in, and he was sure enough a snuffy little boy, too. Now it is close to July Fourth and he is home from college, but he does not stay in the house, he likes camping out on his own and riding the range. He remembers his cowboy idols but hasn't seen them for years. However, his mother has sent for them to come for this holiday in order to cheer up the Old Man, who seems to be losing interest in life.

Well, the Happy Family came but when Kid arrived at the ranch house expecting to see his heroes just the way they lived in his imagination, he was shocked at how old they had grown (Native Son was forty!) and at their odd, fancy modern clothes. They didn't look like his heroes any longer, and he couldn't deal with that. We all had some misunderstandings and after some typical cowboy razzing about the new idea of rodeo being something a real cowboy would never do, Kid gets mad and rides off, getting himself lost and missing the big celebration.

Well, that makes Chip mad and of course they are so much alike that neither can see anything other than their own point of view and off rides Kid, planning to go to Chicago to a big Wild West show. And show them all what was what, by durn.

Lots of surprises for 'Montana Kid' in Chicago, and he had plenty of chances to prove himself to everyone, including the pretty girl that always shows up somewhere in a Bower tale. I really enjoyed this book, especially discovering that Bower sparkle again. I wonder if maybe she wrote her best when she was writing about her Happy Family? They must have been heroes to her as well.

By the way, the Wild West Contest was held at Soldier Field, which had opened in 1924. I very greatly doubt any actual rodeos were held there, but it made a great setting anyway. And as a bit of trivia, when my mother was in her high school marching band she participated in a massed band concert in Soldier Field and never forgot the experience. Knowing that made the idea of the place more real for me while I read about Kid and the things he did there.

Just one detail still puzzles me. There were some events that I am pretty sure are no longer part of any rodeo. Like a relay race, and a fancy trick roping contest. Kid was in the roping and one of his tricks was to have two ropes spinning and stand on his head while keeping them spinning, then turn himself right side up again all while keeping his two ropes spinning. I have watched Mexican charros working their rope tricks, and there is no one on the planet as talented as they are. But i cannot for the life of me figure out how anyone, even my charro heroes, could manage a headstand while spinning a rope in each hand. Not to mention the hat. Kid wore one of those big old-time (to us) cowboy hats from way back. Not only could a person not stand on his head with one of those hats on, he could not take it off with each hand full of spinning ropes. Well, I don't think so, anyway.

So here I am, at the end of my Bower mini-revival, left wondering forever about that question. How in the world did she come up with such a stunt? I suppose I will obsess about it for a few days and then let it go. At least until the next time I feel like spending some time in Bower's world with her Happy Family.

[Rhonda Mast · Rating 5 out of 5]

I just finished this book and cried tears of rage all the way through. I didn’t like the Kid in the previous book, so I was sort of dreading a whole book of him. That being said, he ripped my little heart out. I acknowledge that he was a little twerp to the happy family throughout the book, but the way they treated him made me so made and hurt. In a previous book the happy family turned on one of their own, and it felt deeply personal even though this is a fictional group of people. The whole thing I love about them is how loyal and tightly knit they are, so to have them turn their backs on the Kid was torture. At the end we have a sort of reconciliation, but I wish the book hadn’t ended so abruptly without them truly resolving things and actually having a conversation about it. That being said, the fact that I was sobbing throughout the book is rather a testament to the fact that it was a great book. So there’s that.