By Michael Butler

The very first Reeltown Rodeo dates back to 1951. For fifty years it was annual event.

After being shelved for a couple of decades in the 2000s, the event returned in 2024 and has become an annual tradition once again.

This year’s rodeo will be a two-day event on Friday and Saturday, June 26 and 27 at the Lions Club Arena on Highway 49.

Charles Webster has taken part in many Reeltown rodeos. He spent 40 years as a rodeo clown.

“I started out riding bulls,” Webster said. “I went to a rodeo in Gadsden, and the clown didn’t show up. I told them I’d do it, from then on I was doing it.”

Webster learned how to handle a bull with his experiences.

“You can’t run away from them. You’ve got to work a bull up close.”

“Wild” Gene Randolph, who does the weekly radio show “Clowning Time” on WTLS every Thursday, has been doing rodeos for more than 50 years himself, primarily as a rodeo clown. Reeltown has been on his circuit too.

“Like Charlie, I started out riding bulls,” Randolph said. “Clowning was in my heart because I loved to talk all the time.”

Now as retired clowns, Randolph and Webster agree that the position is vital for rodeos, ala a ringmaster at the circus.

“He picks up all the dead slack,” Webster said. “He keeps the crowd involved. Most of the time they come to see the clown and the bull riding.”

Webster recollects the hardest he has ever been hit by a bull. It was in Foley, Ala.

“They had a bull called Amos Moses. I had an old dummy with a broom stuck in it. That bull knocked me way up in the air. The paramedic said, ‘I thought he hit the dummy.’ I said, yes – but he hit the live one.”

Randolph has taken his fair share of beatings too.

“I’ve still got a crack in my skull,” he said. “I remember Amos Moses. He was a bad one. Now you’ve got bull fighters and a clown. Back then you did both.”

TJ Williams will handle the clowning duties for the weekend.

“TJ is an older guy too,” Webster added. “He’s a little behind Gene and me. He’s got some really good acts.”

Kids can show off their riding this weekend with “mutton bust’n,” also known as sheep riding.

Tickets are $10 for kids 3-10 and $15 for 11 and up and may be purchased at the gate.

“Everything we raise goes back to the community,” Webster said.