THE WEEKENDER: This Ain’t My First Rodeo
By Clyde Black
On May 10, 11 and 12, the Crockett Lions Club will hold it’s annual PRCA rodeo at Porth Arena in Crockett. Rodeo is one of the few remaining entertainment venues from our rural history. Some of our neighboring communities are no longer holding this great cultural sporting event. On behalf of the Lions Club, I’m asking that you come out and support this great event! Our rodeo draws the top cowboys and cowgirls from around the world to Crockett. To keep them coming, a few years ago the Lions voted to award higher purses (winnings) to keep drawing the best of these professional athletes to Crockett. This means we needed the community to come out and see the rodeo, buy some goodies from the concession stand and have a great time with family and friends.
As a Crockett Lion, I can tell you we don’t do this to get rich. We are patriots and give admission on Thursday night to veterans and first responders. The contestants are true professionals. I promise you they won’t take a knee during the National Anthem and they pay entrance fees with no promise of earning any money unless they do so by winning or placing in the event! The Porth Arena is a great place to watch the events. Over the years that covered roof and big arena fans have proven to be real blessings. By coming out to the rodeo you help keep the place maintained for other community events including the county fair! Make no mistake, we need your support. Some statisticians say we are a poor county. In some ways that may be. I’ll say that stat doesn’t say how lucky we are to have the blessings of living here where God is still cherished and neighbors help each other. I was listening to a song my friend Vic White wrote. One of the lines in his song is that he is drinking coffee from the saucer because his cup runneth over. WOW!
Just so you know the Lions Club uses proceeds from the event to help with vision problems facing some of the county’s school kids. The Club also awards annual scholarships to graduating seniors needing help for college. The Arena also faces many costs for maintenance and the club works hard to keep the place in great shape. By the way, we could use some new, young members. Many of us in the club are coming to the end of the road on our journey home and need some new blood to push us on. For about 200 years, James Waldrep has been the rodeo coordinator for the club and now Health Murph has taken over that leadership. He is a young and coming community leader and while working hard to earn a living at John Deere he is able to lead the club in presenting the rodeo. Come on youngsters, we need you to join, participate and get involved.
Come on out fans. You will be close to the action and see some old friends. As always we pray that contestants will be free of serious injury and your pride in your country and it’s history will be restored.
