Under the Wire

I am pretty sure the question that is this week’s column title has crossed most folk’s minds. “What have I done that anyone will remember and will it be what I had hoped it would be?”

As with most things everyone in the world has thought about or already done, I was among the last to consider this weighty thought. I approached it no less enthusiastically than all before me. The result surprised me. In fact it was a bit disappointing.

“Under The Wire” columns have popped out of my mind every week for around 35 years, so that quickly made my list. It was soon replaced with our Livestock News Network radio programs, now approaching 10,000 of them. “Yeah I’ll bet that will be it,” I decided.

After more thought, I was reminded how proud our whole family is of our cow herd. Obviously, I would need to share that accomplishment. How many football players became famous while assisted by 10 other players? I would be proud to have that become my legacy. A day or two later, the pictures on my office walls reminded me of another past life passion Rodeo. For many years that was exactly what I wanted to be remembered for. As reality set in it became obvious I might have been, “A legend in my own mind.” Cross that one off.

Oddly it took the Pandemic experience to point out what I was going to be remembered for. A new phenomenon sprang up. I named it the “Are you still alive phone calls.” I had made several to longtime friends I hadn’t talked to for a while just to confirm they were still with us.

The phone calls I began receiving were the eye openers. As far off relatives and friends I don’t get to see very often began to make those calls to me, a pattern developed. Typically, the call went like this.

“Hi Gary, haven’t talked to you in a while but you have been on my mind.” Then the bombshell hits. “You haven’t been bucked off a horse or had a cow stomp you lately, have you?”

Honestly, that question relating to a long list of emergency room visits and ambulance rides resulting from all sorts of adventures gone awry, have been what these fine folks remember me for.

I’m not going to be remembered for eighteen hundred “Under The Wire” columns, 10,000 “Livestock News Network” radio programs or a half dozen qualifying trips to the National Senior Pro Rodeo finals and National Calf Roping Championships. A cow herd producing calves in great demand throughout the industry doesn’t make the list either. Nope. I’m going to go down in history for broken bones sporting plaster casts, ambulance and firetruck rides across the sage brush and an emergency room visit where one nurse was assigned to stomp the ants crawling out of my clothes while I laid on their exam table (broken leg from a horse wreck).

It wasn’t exactly what I was hoping for, even thought it may be unique. I will be remembered for “He was impossible to kill and healed up quickly, no matter what dumb thing he did.”

OK, now how are you doing with your thoughts? Good Luck!