Steer Chase

         As we grow up we have many things happen in our lives that we love to tell and retell. My family was no exception. I have many stories I could post on here that were told to me. I think my all time favorite was of the chasing steer mom's family had when she was growing up.
         This one time as the story goes Mom, her baby sister Diane and her older brother Jeff were out creating mischief with two friends Jeannie and Mary. As things go in my family Diane was forever getting into some trouble or other, but the way this line of mischief goes I have a feeling she was totally innocent this time. Mom says this steer used to love to chase after you and it did not matter whether you were inside the fence or out of it he would try to play along side you. To some degree I wonder if it may have thought it was human?
         But this day was no exception for a steer chase. Only thing was Jeannie and Mary were not aware that the steer was a chaser or, to mom's telling, tame as a kitten. Well somehow they ended up in the pasture with the steer. Now mom and her siblings, being the mischief making brats they were, decided it would be a fun joke as I remember it being told to holler "RUN THE STEER IS AFTER US!"
         Now keep in mind that before they left the house to go play the girls had been instructed to not get their dresses dirty. What every one should have said was "Don't get your dress torn". Well, that being said you can guess what happened next. When it was yelled “Run! The steer is loose!”, Mary and Jeannie go running full force, not stopping to open the gate in the six-stand barbed wire fence. Yes, you heard me right, not stopping to open the gate in the fence. They scaled it! Mary walked the fence and Jeannie climbed it, tearing the whole back side of her dress off.
         Most would say Diane was the instigator of the whole thing, but I say more than likely it was all Jeff's idea considering he was never happy unless he had you squealing or crying. This I know because I know how he was when he got older and unmercifully picked at me when I was growing up.
         Needless to say, as luck would have it, this was at Easter time so the girls had their good Easter dresses on. When they got back to the house, the story goes, my grandma ended up fixing the dress good as new. And I have to say I bet it looked prettier the second time around because my grandma was the best at any type of sowing that I know of.