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• Calabasas, California - August 24, 1970: I’ve always been interested in girls, it seems. No kidding, always. Beginning way back in first grade at St. Mary’s Catholic school. There was a little girl who I was absolutely mad for. Her name was “Truelock Annie.” Funny name for a kid, right? Actually, her name was Annie Czulack. In class the nuns would call off the role by saying the pupil’s last name first. In this instance it was Czulack Annie. To my young ears it sounded like Truelock Annie. I would carry Truelock Annie’s books for her as we walked together the few blocks home from school each day. I probably would have done almost anything for her. Only six years old and already trying to impress the opposite sex with my masculine prowess, a behavioral pattern of mine that endures to this day. 
So, it should come as no surprise that it was a girl who got me started riding Brahma Bulls. In this case, a cute little cowgirl named Chris. Hers was the sweetest face I'd ever seen: an almost too perfect little turned-up nose and sultry lips, framed by long beautiful blond hair. She would sort of flirt with me in a discreet, quiet and shy kind of way . . . coquettish. Chris was really into the whole rodeo scene and I wanted to impress her. The National Sports Council identifies bull riding as the single most dangerous sporting activity in America! I had never ridden a bull before, nor did I ever have any desire to climb aboard one of those vicious long-horned monsters. But in early March of this year I rode my first bull - as Chris looked on. Truth be known, I was scared shitless the day I was to get on that first bull, but Chris was out there watching and I knew what I had to do. So, feigning courage I didn't really possess and carefully easing my butt down on the bull, I nodded for the chute gate to open . . . and we exploded into the arena! Wow! What a rush! The incredible force and energy of a wild bull twisting, turning and bucking as I managed to avoid being thrown to the ground was surely the closest to raw exciting danger that I had ever tasted! It was an amazing feeling, bolstered afterwards by the admiring looks Chris kept giving me. I became instantly hooked on riding bulls. Since that first bull ride, I no longer do it to impress Chris - I do it because it's positively the most intoxicating thing I've ever done! |