I braved the crowds of Texas yahoos and wannabe cowboys yesterday to venture into the Houston Livestock show and rodeo to demonstrate spinning for the two spinning/ weaver guilds I belong to.
I will have to say that this is the first public event or event I have been to in a larger public arena that didn't have the obligatory please check all knives and firearms at the door signs all over the place. Guess it's because this is considered a family event what with all the 4 h ers and wannabe rodeo cowboys of ages 5- 15 all in boots, chaps, hats, and big belt buckles. A couple of the little tykes were having trouble walking because of the size of their hats and belt buckles.
For some reason our display area is situated right next to the cotton gin, so we had a hard time convincing anyone who asked that what we were spinning was wool, although we did have one woman who was spindling cotton. We had four spinners spinning , three weavers weaving, two explainers explaining and one spindler spindling. Since it was school vacation for some schools, our display was constantly being bombarded by screaming groups of first and second graders who were knowledgeably informed by their leaders that we were sewing or knitting, or anything but spinning and weaving. We did our best to correct information and share information but since most of the leaders were harrassed and most of the kids just wanted to grab something and run, it was pretty much a no go from the get go. There were some teenagers either still kitted out in their competition (roping queen, goat queen, pig queen, meat goat queen etc.) gear or carrying it that stayed and chatted and asked interested questions along with some family units. Many of the family units had young children in strollers who were treated to long and involved explanations by their parent. At least it saved me from having to shout over the noises of the announcements, mooing. lowing, bleating and grunting of the animals mixed with the announcements from the four arenas and the general noise level from the school groups.
Across the way from us in a prime position was a photo op stand with a Texas longhorn steer. I thought it was interesting that someone would go to the trouble to stuff a steer until after about an hour it actually moved it's head and I realized it was real. I went over later to talk to the lady running the space and found out that these were abused steers. This brought up my own personal question of just who would abuse a Texas longhorn and why? Maybe someone with a death wish as those guys are big. This group of volunteers takes the abused steers and works with them, sometimes for years, to get them to accept human contact. Once they are calm and gentle around people, they earn their keep by being photo models. As long as you don't try to touch their horns or faces, and don't go down underneath them where they have to turn their heads to see you, they are fine with just standing around looking photogenic. Apparently , in real life, what Texas long horn steers do for most of their lives is just stand around looking stuffed. Gee is there a parallel in there somewhere? I think so.
Other highlights included a stand where you could choose your own colors and they would spin you a genuwine 15 foot nylon Texas lasso complete with roping loop yee haw! Lots of little kids wandering around with nylon roping lassos which will probably end up strangling someone or something like the family pet. I know that's what I'd buy a young inner city kid.
The hotest foods items are a batter dipped deep fried oreo cookie and something called dipping beads which is tiny granules of ice cream which have been frozen so hard that they still taste of the feon and crunch as well. I didn't indulge in the deep fried oreo, it was just a bit to bizarre a concept for me, and I didn't feel like standing in the ridiculously long line to get one. I did try the dipping beads, and once you got past the taste of the freon and nitrogen they tasted sort of like ice cream. After about 10 minutes they went from distinct tiny globules to something that resembled a facial scrub in color, texture and viscosity and then just went to a liquid ice cream state. Kind of strange.
The most twisted moment was when I was watching the meat goat judging- picture about 30 goats dhaved bald except for thei heads, hooves and tails, burshed and cleaned and primped and trained to stand in exhibit poses like the dogs at a dog show with a judge walking along, examining haunches and backs and selecting the show champion. That part was ok, even interesting, it was the announcement as all were leaving the ring except that grand champion that got me. It was the announcder declaring that for all the classes of the meat goat category which had been judged, the truck to the slaughter house was waiting at the lading dock at the back of the arena.
I went back to spinning and watching the steer to see if he would move again.
Marni
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