A Midday Nap in the Hay

As a native Calgarian, I grew up with the Calgary Stampede which is a very important part of my summer. In my 67 years I have missed the Stampede Parade only once. When all five of my children were young we would make it a family day down at the park for Kids’ Day! Money was tight but that was still something that didn’t get missed… which is where my story starts!

The agriculture barns were the highlight of our day – the cows, horses and many different animals. We had all five kids with us, and the two youngest were in a stroller. This particular year a family member who was along with us suggested that the second youngest would be allowed to get out of the stroller. This person would hold his hand and watch him very closely. Well, this lasted approximately 5 minutes… when I looked behind me to see where this person was – who had my very small son – this person was there but no small son.

Panic set in immediately!! I was quite calm as I went on a search mission – sure he couldn’t have gotten too far. After about 10 minutes I wasn’t so calm anymore asking the farmers and anyone else I could find if they had seen this little boy. All activity in the barns came to a halt as all of the farm people started searching. After about 15 minutes a shout came from the other side of the barn and I went running to see if they had found him.

The farmer said for me to come with him – very quietly. As we went into a little hidden stall there was my small son all curled up with a tiny baby calf… both babies were snuggled together and sound asleep.

The calf had been born through the night and to save it from all of the people in the barns they had hidden the calf, but one little boy had found it. Thank goodness for all of the farm people that helped search as I certainly would not have found the hidden stall.

Through my tears I thanked them as best as I could but this is something I have not forgotten. When I was down at the park with my grandchildren in later years they were watched very closely.

It was a very happy ending to a very scary thing. Thank you for the opportunity to tell this story and to thank all of the farmers once again. The small boy in the story is now 45 years old and takes his own children to the parade and to the park.

Barb Saunders