Gun-Packing Santa Draws Fire

kcra.com ^ | Dec. 9, 2010

[Free ThinkerNY]

TURLOCK, Calif. -- A painted plywood cut-out of Santa with a cowboy hat and a gun on his belt is causing quite a stir in Turlock.

”I tried to get the image out of my head all day long and I could not, because Santa is made for love, bringing families together, not carrying weapons,” Monica Sliva said.

The Santa is one of many displays that line Tracy’s Christmas Tree Lot on Monte Vista Avenue.

Sliva confronted the workers at the tree lot to ask them to take the gun-toting Santa display down because she said it sends the wrong message to children.

“It portrays to the kids that it’s OK for Santa to be carrying a gun and therefore it’s OK for them to be carrying a gun,” Sliva said.

Tree lot workers said they have been using the cowboy Santa display for 20 years and have never had a compliant until Sliva asked them to take it down.

“I think it’s pretty crazy, to tell you the truth,” Bobby Vierra said. “I mean, we're just trying to sell trees out here.”

When commotion over the display caused traffic to back up, workers covered the gun on Santa's belt. The display was then temporarily taken down.

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We used to catch a lot of big dophin and sailfish using mullet as an active bait -

Smoked sailfish is wonderful!

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Yes, I've heard they are good but haven't eaten any that I recall.

Many moons ago my doctors were a man and wife, GP and Pediatrician for the kids. Anyway, he had a HUGE Sailfish mounted on the office wall. The kids were in awe of it.

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Sailfish are great gamefish -

We used to sometimes see one jumping on sports fishing shows on TV

But PETA and the PC idiots appear to have put a stop to that

I had a slightly more exciting experience attempting to outlast a large barracuda in a stare-down contest while diving off Hillsbourgh Lighthouse one summer

A bit of advice:

Never wear a shiny wristwatch with a shiny expandable band when diving

“Be the bait” is a lousy motto

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[potlatch]

Was that Lighthouse in deep water? It looked set back on the beach. You told me about the barracuda long ago. That would be scary.

I’m heading to bed, worn out.

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There is a deep channel at Hillsbourgh Inlet - just below the lighthouse

Bud and his buddies used to jump from a small outboard onto rays in the inlet and take a ride

It leads into the Intercoastal Canal - which is full of sharks, barracudas - and after a hurricane - even big gators that got swept out into the Atlantic - even water moccasins -

Not unusual to see a huge gator crossing over AIA from the beach after a hurricane and bad flooding

We sometimes had gators in our flooded pastures many miles inland
Trapped between a big hungry PO’ed Brahma bull and a big hungry PO’ed gator makes for a fun day

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Lol, you had a ‘fun’ time when you were young! My days at Galveston were much more peaceful!

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Yeah -

“Fun”

LOL!

I recall as I was about to put down a galvanized bucket of mixed grain feed to my older brother’s big Brahma bull in the front pasture -

He suddenly charged me -

I tossed the bucket right in his face

I luckily was able to run backwards and get over a barbed wire fence

“Fun Fun Fun”

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That obviously isn’t the peaceful one you could ride on, lol.

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LOL!

Noooooo!

My brother’s bull was purchased at a Brahma ranch in Palm Beach County - and my brother trained him for cattle shows - he won at Belle Glade and also was Junior Champion Brahma Bull at the Florida State Fair in Tampa - but he was a nasty killer and would he hook you with a horn in the back in a heartbeat

But the Brahma steer I trained and and was able to ride was bought at my brother’s future FiL’s ranch at 6 months old

- I tied him up back at the farm under cover at back of our feedout corral - giving him water and feed - the young steer proceeded to wrap the rope around me and test his skull on my legs -

Not a “good thing”

So I let the steer taste my steel-toed engineer boots - before he crippled me

The next day that young Brahma steer was as tame and hungry as a Cocker Spaniel you took home from an animal shelter

He soon thought he was a horse as he watched us training and riding quarter horses

He would run to the corral and wait for me to hop on his back and grab one of his big floppy ears - and we would take off and round up the cattle and horses for feeding

He grew into a huge Brahma steer and we sold him at the Davie auction to a rancher named Dewey Hawkins who saw me get on him in the auction pen outside - and bought him for a pet for his grandkids and kept him at his home on South Dixie Highway - he had the free run of Dewey Hawkins fenced in lawn at his ranch

Years later I stopped by there and whistled - He came right over and I climbed right on his back

By then he was much bigger than any Brahma bull you ever saw in a rodeo

Yet he was still gentle and still thought he was a horse!

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Another wild tale from a former teenaged cowboy, gator killer, and shark wrangler!

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[potlatch]

You’ve told me much of this before so I was puzzled if it was the same steer. But each time you tell it I learn a little more, lol. I did know and really liked the part about you seeing him years later and that he still recognized you. That’s nice.

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The difference between to individual animals of the exact same species and identical environments is sometimes the same as that of humans.

It starts with early young imprinting and rarely changes.

The big difference between animals and humans is that an intelligent human should learn to recognize that they cannot trust an animal any more than they can trust a human stranger.

Examples include the nutty Enviros that “live with Grizzles” and are “unexpectedly lunchmeat” or the woman who was killed by the “her loving friend” the Killer Whale -

A relatively small four month old dairy heifer will act much like a mad bull in a rodeo of a young child walks up to it.

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All the years my kids were in the Stock Shows it never ceased to amaze me how gentle the huge steer were with the very young children. Of course they were raised and taken care of every day by those kids.

Running late today, just sitting down to eat right now.

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I never was involved in the training of my brother’s prize Brahma bull for cattle shows -

I was training the younger Brahma steer for shows -

But I respected what that bull could do if I was not mucho careful

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The kids always used these ‘sticks’, don’t know what they are called, but they would rub the steer’s sides to keep them calm.

It’s surprising how calm they are inspite of the noisy crowds watching and all!

Still eating....lol

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Yup -

We used those to train and “place” the hoofs of cattle when we posed them in the showring

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Yeah, I had forgot about placing the hoofs! Been a long time. Piper likes his belly rubbed too, lol.

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Recall using a piece of broken glass to scape the horns so they would be polished and shiny?

(a bit of black shoepolish helps)

And the same to the hooves?

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A Brahma has a smooth thin layer of hair - Herefords, Angus, Charlois are more of a pain to maintain and groom for shows

But not a testy

A Brangus (Brahma-Angus cross) is the most miserable critter you ever saw - mean and just unreliable to be around

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[potlatch]

Ha, I thought you were asleep.
We never raised steer, my kids had lambs and they HAD to be walked every morning and night to build up those muscles. I personally clipped and groomed them for show but now they just shave them down real close.

One year it was so cold that after bathing them we put down sheets and brought them into the den. If they have a runny nose they would be ‘sifted’ and out of the show.

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LOL!

..... a little lamb

In the den -

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Two in the den - is worth more than two that didn’t make the show!

And, neither played basketball!