I have always been big.  Call me husky.  Call me big boned.  Call me fat.  But part of that bigness was strength.  Our society is changing today, but even at the age of six, I didn’t know many of my classmates that were feeding calves morning and night – no small task to make sure that all of the hungry mouths got their fill.  It meant a certain level of enforcement – knocking heads of the calves that wanted to eat the smaller calves’ milk as well.

In first grade, I moved on to feeding the cows.  Each five gallon bucket of feed – a barley, oat, soybean meal, and mineral mix, could feed three cows.  Morning and night – two feedings a day, thirty cows, or twenty buckets of feed per day.

Then there was hay.  Each cow could eat about a bale a day.  Either thrown down from the hay barn above, or stacked on the loader, brought to the barn, and carried in.

There was also the pigs to slop (water and feed), young stock to feed (more five gallon pails of feed), calf pens to pitch (forks of heavy, sometimes sloppy waste), and mangers to clean (try sweeping the left over’s out of the mangers with a broom and carrying them out to the gutters).

Those were the day to day jobs – those don’t include the seasonal making of hay, picking of rocks, or other chores that were required.

Not trying to brag, but those chores made me pretty strong.

Three of the most terrifying moments in my life were fights that I got into.  One with my best friend at the water fountain that I thought knocked out a tooth.  One with an elementary school nemesis.  One with a high school bully that ended with me inching him up the wall of the band room by the throat until someone said – he’s going to kill him.

Watching an old episode of the television show Bonanza where the character Hoss befriends a big but mentally slow and easily angered stranger brought these memories to mind.  As Hoss said, big guys need to take a little more teasin’ and hold their tempers.  In short, with strength comes responsibility.

There is always going to be someone weaker then us.  Physically.  Mentally.  Socially.  Spiritually.  Each of us will have power over someone.  We can use it to build or destroy.  Lets use a little “Hoss” sense.  With that strength, comes responsibility.

At least that is how it seems to this country boy.