Brother Broken



Rodeo fun...

Dad took us to the Hub Café for lunch. We ordered cheeseburgers and Vi-Co. We feasted. Our booth had a tabletop jukebox. None of us knew how to operate it other than to turn the knob to flip the playlist. So we ate without dinner music. Besides, we didn’t have supplementary cash to feed it.

“Dad? Can I have a nickel for the jukebox?”

“No.” He reached into his pocket and handed over some coins. “Go to Madill’s and buy smokes.”

Madill’s was a drugstore with a massive selection of goods to buy. It was a great place to get cigarettes while waiting in line to purchase cough medicine. At that time, you didn’t have to be of age to buy cigarettes, and no one ever questioned why an eight-year-old needed smokes.

After lunch, we went to the Stampede Grounds and watched the rodeo action. It was wild. I particularly liked the barrel racing, because the riders were girls, like me. But after a while, we became bored. Dad took us to the midway, bought some ride tickets, and put us on the Ferris wheel. John, Mitch and I shared a ride. It was the freakiest thing we had experienced up to that time.

Mr. T bought us cotton candy, and we scarfed it down. After a ride on the Tilt-a-Whirl, we packed into Mr. T’s car to go home. Between the Tilt-a-Whirl ride, the cotton candy, and riding in the back seat, I started to feel sick.

“I’m not feeling so good.”

I might have spoiled the perfect day when I upchucked cotton candy in Mr. T’s car. Good thing upchucking wasn’t a collective undertaking for John, Mitch, and me. I was alone on that one. Mr. T never offered to take us anywhere after that.


Brother Broken

Foreword Clarion Review 

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