Sunday, 18 October 2009
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Yesterday was one hell of a day in Roscoe. Here are the pictures of the day. Starting early, through the helicopter ride (if you look closely, you can see my blue house on the corner in one of the ariel photos) and finally a couple of shots of the fireworks at the end of the day. BTW, the red and blue lights in the tops of the fireworks pictures are the lights on the stage. The only picture I didnt get that I do now lament is of the baloon release at noon. The cheerleaders spent two hours and two cylinders of helium blowing up baloons and the nearest estimate was around one thousand baloons. Then right after the National Anthem, we let them all go. The irony here is, this was the 3rd Annual West Texas Wind Festival and those baloons were visible for over an hour after release and right directly overhead of Roscoe. That gives you an idea of just how much wind we actually had yesterday. The last view we had of those baloons was of tiny specks way high over our City.
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Just got home from one hell of a day. Long, I am absolutely worn out, but so, so satisfying. Everything went just great. The weather was fantastic, the crowd countless and the entertainment most pleasing. I got a ton of pictures but they are still in my lap top and I am too tired to mess with transferring them tonight. I took a helicopter ride and got some great ariel shots, then to top the day off there was a very happy surprise. I was sitting in front of city hall, grooving to the music when this fellow came walking down the street. I thought to myself, "Damn, that guy looks exactly like my son, Matt,,,,HOLY SHIT, IT IS MATT". I was speachless. Could not believe it, came real, real close to tearing up, and truth to tell, did. Such a fantastic surprise. So all in all, today was a perfect day. More details and pictures tomorrow when my feet quit hurting, my mind slows down and my body quits demanding that I put it to bed. Good night Roscoe, thank you for being my home town.
Friday, 16 October 2009
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Here it is the eve of the big day. Just got home from downtown where the event has already started coming together. Quite a few vendors are already setting up, there seems to be an air of expectancy over the whole town. Cody and his crew has the city sparkling. I have never seen Roscoe look so good, it is just amazing to me. I am seeing the town that I bad mouthed for the majority of my years in a totally new light and I really do like that. I feel a huge pride in my gut for my town. Still a lot to do on the morrow but I am confident it will be taken care of in an expedient and forthright manner. We have learned so much from the recent past and from this venture too. I cant wait to don my MC finery and start the new day. Damn, it feels so good to be a part of something special.
Thursday, 15 October 2009
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Been out all day today wrapping up all the little nit-picking final details for the Wind Festival. The town is looking sharp, all neat and tidy. Finally got our fireworks today about five p.m. That had been a major concern and worry for me. I thought if any factor of the overall equation failed, it might be the fireworks but they were delivered today and now reside in City Hall. WHEW!!!! The bands are all lined up, the QB Challenge is solidified, Vendors keep coming in, right now we have fifty coming, the cheerleaders are scheduled to start filling helium baloons first thing saturday morning, in short, everything is pretty much chiseled in stone. Tomorrow we will close Cypress Street at three p.m. and set up the stage, put out the trash cans and situate the port-a-pottys, then Saturday morning the vendors start setting up early. The sound people will be here early Saturday morning to set up the sound system on the stage and the Helicopter guy will be down tomorrow to inspect the landing zone we have built for him. The plan is to have everything ready to kick off at ten a.m. Saturday starting with Aida Pantoja's spanish dancing troop. Then at noon, the RHS band will play the National Anthem while the Cheerleaders sing. Then when that finishes is when the helium baloons come into play. As I said earlier, the cheerleaders will begin blowing up the baloons early Saturday morning then they will be passed out to everyone around and just as the National Anthem ends, everyone is to release their baloons. We have two helium cylinders and each cylinder is supposed to inflate 200 plus baloons. We had to notify the airport at Sweetwater and Dyess AFB about this. We expect about four hundred baloons to fly over Roscoe shortly after noon. After that comes the QB Challenge, cow patty bingo and the music. The helicopter rides will start around noon and continue until sunset. This all ends with fireworks around 11:00 p.m. Saturday night. So it will be an all day bonanza "On The Bricks" in downtown Roscoe. The excitement level is just amazing. We are expecting a huge crowd all day long, an even bigger crowd than we had in July. Roscoe is fast gaining the reputation as a happening place. That feels damn good. I love it.
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Went to my first regular City Council meeting Tuesday evening. Felt kinda nice setting there. We whizzed through the agenda pretty quickly then adjourned. Afterwards the City Manager and three of us councilmen went out to the Legion for a snort before retiring for the evening. It was an interesting little soiree.
Only two more days until the Festival. It is gaining momentum like a run away train going downhill. We have nearly 50 vendors coming. That in itself is very cool. At the July 17th thing we had only 10 or so. The feature act threw us a last minute curve and the fireworks have yet to arrive however, they are scheduled for delivery this afternoon. Thats the only think that still has me dealing with nerves. The rest is all set up and ready to go. I think we will have a huge crowd. The Quarterback Challenge is really going strong. We have 12 area QB's lined up and an atmosphere of unbridled excitement is covering the whole town. It is going to be a very long day. I will be in my radio finery and on stage most of the day. Plus the radio station is going to be broadcasting live from 2:00 to 5:00 from the Bricks. All in all, it is shaping up to be one hell of a party.
