One of our readers wanted to share her feelings for the West Texas Fair and Rodeo. We are intrigued by her passionate feelings for this longstanding Taylor county tradition and honor her request to remain anonymous.
“Dear West Texas Fair and Rodeo,
As I hungrily await the arrival of this annual celebration of American eating habits, my stomach is no silent participant. I sit here and I am forced to keep apologizing to those around me for the rude habits of my funnel-cake loving friend.
I make promises.
I try bribes.
“If you hush up I’ll make sure you get an extra helping of turkey leg/corn/deep fried anything.”
It is no use. I blame you West Texas Fair & Rodeo, I blame you! You should be the one apologizing.
But through it all, and despite the awkward stares and concerned glances, I can’t help feeling elated at the thought that the carnies and their contraptions will soon light up the Abilene skyline with their annual collection of festive colored lights. It’s like Christmas in September!
I can’t help but long for those tiny colorful stars that dance in spinning patterns every day until they grace our skyline with their 
fanciful presence. In the glow of those stars, families, friends and budding romances can be seen in a certain kind of rose-colored fog. Or perhaps that’s just the red dirt…
The red dirt kicked up in the oven-hot wind of a West Texas evening at the fairgrounds chokes me with nostalgia. The same dust blew on the county fair of 116 years ago during a simpler time when cowboys still roamed the land.
Oh wait…
Cowboys will be cowboys until the end of time. That’s the way we like it here where an eternal 8 seconds reigns supreme. Here in West Texas where we welcome the sweet and earthy smell of “money” (at least that’s what my father calls it). We look deep into the doe-y eyes of our future sirloin and admire their eyelashes with no regret, only deep and mutual respect for a relationship that has made us what we are today. And then… we ride. Roping, romping and racing our way through each and every rodeo stadium.
We wear our pride on our feet as we march downtown to usher in a week-long celebration of West Texas tradition, parading our heritage as we parade ourselves. Welcome back to Abilene, West Texas Fair and Rodeo. We’ve missed you.”
If you are ready for fair food and can’t wait until this weekend, check out our article on the Celebrity Spotlight Kitchen.
Follow Bailey and Scene on Instagram and Twitter. Stay up to date on your local Abilene activities with our #EventsToBeScene series.
@bajaelsol & @AbileneScene
Leave a Reply