This Is My First Rodeo

The local community college, Crowder College, sponsored a rodeo in town and we were mighty excited to go. Neither of us had been to a rodeo and we really couldn't start pretending to be cowboys until we had.

The show began with a really really long god and country intro. The national anthem was sung, there were multiple people riding around with flags, there was a prayer, a poem by a solider about how freedom isn't free, and so on.

Our state representative, Bill Reiboldt, gave a little speech which included a bit about how some people wanted to stop rodeos in Missouri but he wouldn't let that happen. You could tell he was serious because he said it "MissourUH". MissourEE is where the sissies live.

The rodeo was pretty awesome. There were multiple events and a joking clown came out to entertain while they were setting up the next event. When we first arrived there were little kids trying to stay on the backs of fast running sheep. Now that was amusing.

I'd say this was the most brutal event that we saw. In calf roping the calf is first lassoed from horseback. The guy then runs over to it and picks it up off the ground and body slams it down. The calf's legs are then tied up and have to stay tied for a certain amount of time for it to count. I recall one calf in particular becoming airborne from the whiplash of the rope around its neck. That's gotta hurt. One was so stunned it took a while for it to get up. It was all wobbly legged like it had the memory of learning how to walk knocked out of it. It was funny that even after all of the abuse the calves usually just popped up and started jogging to the exit like they hadn't just been severely womped.

At some point there was a kids event. Here a bunch of calves were set loose with some sort of prize tied around their tail, and the kids all chased after them. It was some pretty hilarious chaos. Maybe it's just a reflection of my own unfamiliarity with livestock, but having little kids so close to the animals makes me nervous. I feel like somebody could get knocked over and get their head stomped pretty easily.

Well my first rodeo was awesome. It was good that I liked it because I already had tickets to go to a different one the next day.

Carver Day

Today we went to Carver Day at the George Washington Carver National Monument in nearby Diamond, Missouri. Carver was born in Diamond and went to school in Neosho, so he's quite the local hero. He was born a slave and later became a scientist who promoted peanuts and other crops as an alternative to the overplanting of cotton in the south. According to Wikipedia the monument "was the first national monument dedicated to an African American and the first to honor someone other than a president." Pretty cool.

There was another little Wikipedia section that I thought was awesome. Carver died in 1943, which was smack in the middle of World War Dos.

A movement to establish a U.S. national monument to Carver began before his death. Because of World War II, such non-war expenditures were banned by presidential order. Missouri senator Harry S. Truman sponsored a bill in favor of a monument. In a committee hearing on the bill, one supporter said:

"The bill is not simply a momentary pause on the part of busy men engaged in the conduct of the war, to do honor to one of the truly great Americans of this country, but it is in essence a blow against the Axis, it is in essence a war measure in the sense that it will further unleash and release the energies of roughly 15,000,000 Negro people in this country for full support of our war effort."

So in a roundabout way George Washington Carver, with the help of peanuts, defeated Hitler.

This may seem silly but I was impressed as soon as we parked. It was a hot day but the parking was nice and shady.

There was a keynote speaker which I didn't find particularly interesting. State Representative Bill Reiboldt was on hand to give a speech and present an award as well.

We went on a little tour of the grounds. There was a statue or two of Carter, a pond, a house, and a cemetery

.

Probably the most amusing part of our trip was the class on how to make peanut milk.

First you grind up the peanuts with a mortar and pestle. Then you add water and strain the solids. It instantly turns white as milk. We weren't allowed to drink it, but it smelled very peanutty. Apparently this was a life saver for babies in war-torn countries at the time.

We hardly had the time or energy to even glance at the museum after all of the festivities, so we will have to make another trip sometime. Maybe in the winter when there will be less going on.