Buckin' the air

Buckin' the air by Bud La Mar is a humorous Western short story from the late 1920s pulp era. The tale blends rodeo bravado with early aviation hijinks, following two cowboys whose bid to reach another big show turns into a slapstick flight and crash.

Flush with rodeo winnings from Eldora and tempted by a crooked invite promising easy prizes at San Dominick, the narrator (a wary, wisecracking cowpoke) and his fearless partner Bearcat Gibson celebrate, brawl with a jittery marshal and an enraged shopkeeper after a storefront smash-up, and bolt from town. They hitch a ride to a pasture where two down-on-their-luck aviators offer a lift; despite the narrator’s terror, Bearcat pushes them into the rickety plane. After a hair-raising takeoff, the engine sputters out of gas, and a chaotic forced landing follows—through a greenhouse, fields, a cemetery, orchards, barns, flocks of geese, and a creek—before the wreck finally stops. The partners wake in a hospital to find the marshal and the furious shopkeeper ready to claim damages, their hard-won money likely gone, leaving the story on a wry, comedic note about luck, pride, and the perils of “buckin’ the air.”