Labor Day weekend in Dillon is historic. Ask anyone from there about it and you will undoubtedly be regailed with stories of drinking, rodeos, and parades. Many folks will probably share the same horrific story of the jet plane hitting the grain elevator. The year was 1979. I was 10 and on a float in the parade when an air force jet doing a flyby hit the grain elevator in the center of town. It was awful. Chaos. Fire, death, many injuries. But, I digress, that is not the topic of my blog.
Labor Day in Dillon has always been fun. Probably the most fun was the Labor Day of my teens and 20s. At that time Dillon's Rodeo crowned Miss Rodeo Montana. It was a big deal. The rodeos had the best stock and the best cowboys. It was fabulous. The amount of drinking that happened (still happens) is monumental. I think it is a pretty well known fact that cowboys can party.
After T and I married we entered the parade along with T's family and friends with our "Dillon Disposal Precision Dumpster Drill Team." We did it for a good long time, probably the better part of 15 years. It was a riot. As you may not be aware, T's family owns the garbage business in Dillon, so it was only natural that we would eventually organize a drill team that performed complex marching routines with rolling garbage cans. Fun stuff. We won many times and parade goers always cheered loudly when we rolled by.
So, it is with some sadness that we forego the celebrations in Dillon this weekend. But, alas, it is not the same party we fondly remember from our youth. Yes, there is an ungodly amount of drinking, there is still fabulous rodeo action and cowboy boots on every person within 10 square miles, but the faces have changed. We have changed. So with a heavy heart we leave the celebration to the next generation.
Yee Haw!!!!!
No comments:
Post a Comment