09/08/06 Snow rodeo

Snow Rodeo Sometimes you just have to quit trying to beat the weather and change to get along with it. I'm Jeff Keane; I'll be right back to tell you about one change. Our county fair had been traditionally held just about the time of the fall equinox. This made for some real interesting weather to work around to put on a fair. One thing about it, you could sure determine serious fair lovers. This change in the weather brought wind, rain, cold and would on occasion dust the outlying hills with snow just to make sure you knew to feel cold. One Sunday, at the rodeo arena we woke up to snow and wind that would be classified as a baby ground blizzard. We saddled the pick-up horses early in the morning and tied them to the leeward side of the stock trailer. The rodeo grand entry was made up of the stock contractor and me with the flags and a Siberian reindeer rodeo queen that flew in because she heard the weather was balmy. This type of uncertain weather made counting on a big crowd for our Nashville country western entertainers a real iffy situation. Finally, after many discussions that would have put the U.N. to shame, the fair board members closed their eyes, crossed their fingers, broke tradition, and moved the fair dates to the week before Labor Day. It has worked a slight hardship for local wheat farmers not finished with harvest or fall seeding, but the change gives the fair weather that fills the seats for our entertainment night and I know a bunch of rodeo cowboys that enjoy wearing straw hats and sunglasses instead of parkas and muck-luks. I'm Jeff Keane.