It's time to start thinking about the Minnesota State Fair. In a short six months it'll be here. I can almost feel the swaying of the shuttle bus I'll take from the free parking off of Snelling and I-94 and feel the sun on my face as I wait in line for admission ticket. There are two kinds of people in Minnesota--those that hate it and those that love it---and I love the fair.
What's not to love about it--there's great people watching, great food, tons of stuff to see, freebies, stuff to buy, more people watching and more food. I think anyone who goes regularly has a routine or set route they follow and some "gotta haves" in the food department. Our route always takes us through the animal barns, have to see the biggest pig in Minnesota and feel the sheep and marvel at how big the cows and horses are up close (not so exciting for Mr. Wonderful, the former farm boy), to the DNR building, the Fine Arts building where we always wish we had more talent or money and Heritage Square. We aren't too particular on the food other than I need about three or four pronto pups. I like to see what all the vendors are selling in the grandstand though sometimes the heat or crowds will make it too much work to go through all of it.
Every year we run into acquaintances--well, I suppose, since its the Great Minnesota Get Together, all 100,000 are our friends, but I'm talking about people we've actually met before. Some years we go to a show at the Grandstand--the past couple of years we've gone to see A Prairie Home Companion. What a great way to celebrate Minnesota at the Minnesota State Fair.
Monday, February 23, 2009
Cowboy Dreams
While flipping through channels the other day, I happened upon one of the American Film Institute shows about the movies they've rated as the best 10 of different genres. AFI has a lot of rankings of movies by different criteria--top movie in a specific genre, 100 best movie quotes, 100 best movie heroes and villains, and on and on. I really like shows like these but have to be careful watching them because my first impulse is to get out a pen and paper and start making lists of movies I HAVE to see--and then I get a bit compulsive about it. (Someday I'll talk about my other lists for my other compulsions).
But back to the small part of the show I saw--I caught the part about westerns. It brought back all my old dreams of being a cowboy.
There were a lot of obstacles between me and my cowboy dreams. First off, I was a girl but I solved that little problem by insisting that everyone call me "John". Second big problem was living in Minnesota and in a town--but I figured that was only temporary. As soon as I was old enough to leave home I could head out west and do my real cowboy stuff. In the meantime, we lived on the edge of a hill and there was plenty of room to roam. The third big obstacle was a slight fear of horses-- but I pretty much blamed that on not finding the right horse. My cousins had a horse, (a Welsh pony if I remember right) but that horse was not trained like Trigger or Champion (Gene Autry) or even Mr. Ed. When we wanted to ride it we had to trick it to catch it--it did not come when we whistled or called or when it sensed we were in danger. In fact, that horse was a great disappointment in the cowboy skills area.
I loved my holsters and pistols and the occassional plastic rifle. I even got cowboy boots once. In the movie "Stagecoach" there is a scene where the stagecoach is being pulled by a team of six horses going full speed and the cowboy jumps off the front of the stagecoach onto the backs of the rear pair of horses and then works his way up to the middle pair of horses and then to the lead pair of horses. I don't remember why he was doing such a dangerous thing--I was too busy studying his technique in case I was called upon to do the same thing in my cowboy career someday.
It could happen...
But back to the small part of the show I saw--I caught the part about westerns. It brought back all my old dreams of being a cowboy.
There were a lot of obstacles between me and my cowboy dreams. First off, I was a girl but I solved that little problem by insisting that everyone call me "John". Second big problem was living in Minnesota and in a town--but I figured that was only temporary. As soon as I was old enough to leave home I could head out west and do my real cowboy stuff. In the meantime, we lived on the edge of a hill and there was plenty of room to roam. The third big obstacle was a slight fear of horses-- but I pretty much blamed that on not finding the right horse. My cousins had a horse, (a Welsh pony if I remember right) but that horse was not trained like Trigger or Champion (Gene Autry) or even Mr. Ed. When we wanted to ride it we had to trick it to catch it--it did not come when we whistled or called or when it sensed we were in danger. In fact, that horse was a great disappointment in the cowboy skills area.
I loved my holsters and pistols and the occassional plastic rifle. I even got cowboy boots once. In the movie "Stagecoach" there is a scene where the stagecoach is being pulled by a team of six horses going full speed and the cowboy jumps off the front of the stagecoach onto the backs of the rear pair of horses and then works his way up to the middle pair of horses and then to the lead pair of horses. I don't remember why he was doing such a dangerous thing--I was too busy studying his technique in case I was called upon to do the same thing in my cowboy career someday.
It could happen...
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