By Piper Banning and Mike Weland
Photos by Martha Fowler
The Bonners Ferry FFA Chapter brought the bray back to the Badger Den Wednesday night to showcase some of the amazing basketball skills and blinding speed of those magnificent Equus asinus as well as the unparalleled grace and majesty of those intrepid men and women sitting astride, dribbling gracefully from one end of the court to the other at breakneck speed, sinking basket after basket with extraordinary finesse and precision that bedazzled.
Ahem … I should perhaps clarify … dribbling the basketball gracefully … not what you were thinking, Even though the donkeys wore Depends-like garments and some of their older passengers were overheard asking where they might grab a pair.
The event is a fundraiser for Boundary County Victim’s Services, and in charge of putting the “fun” in the fundraiser was Bonners Ferry High School FFA President Nora Young with help from her posse; Ethan Cowell, Kayla Smith, Sydney Beckle and RJ Lewis, with assistance from advisors Julie Smith and Gabby Johnson.
And the stars of the show, not the a**es but the ones riding them, were the BFHS FFA Students vs. the Dependable FFA Alumni and the BFHS Students and Athletes vs. the BFHS Teachers and Coaches, who looked just Charmin.
Because of the astronomically high scores, the scorekeeper threw her clicker, stat book and pencil in the air midway through the first quarter and went out for popcorn, a sarsaparilla and a bale of hay for the visiting donkeys to enjoy after they showered.
“You okay?” one asked.
“Ess okay,” another replied around a wad of chew,
“Who when?”
“Huh?”
“Who when? We when? You when? They when? Who when?!”
“Ohhh, who when! Why not you just say so? I when, you when, we all when!”
And all the donkeys were laughing, “Hee Haw! Hee Haw!” and three donkeys broke into an improptu hop hop break dance and they all tapping and singing and dancing and laughing. “Hee Haw, Hee Haw” but then Roger go “Hee Hee! Haw, Haw, Haw!” and everybody stop and look at him and say “man, ese, what that was?” and they all still laughing as they pick up their gym bags and head out to the bus for the ride home.
“Hey, Roger?”
“Yeah, Alberto?”
“You hokay?”
“Ess okay.”
“We do again next jeer?”
“Yeah, next jeer and the jeer after, too!”
“Yeah … and mebbe next time I might let choo when!”
And raucous, braying laughter, “Hee Haw! Hee Haw” trailed from the bus as its door hissed closed and pulled out on Tamarack Lane and turned toward Highway 95 and the open road home.
“Hee Hee Hee!”
“Chuddup, Roger.”