4th ofJuly

Well, here it is time to celebrate the 4th of July once again--gosh, seems like we just did that not long ago! Time sure flies by --the older you get the faster it flies!!
Today Stamford Tx. had their rodeo parade downtown and as always I think of the many years that we were always there. It was a hugh parade in those days but I know without a doubt it no longer compares to the old days----seems nothing does!
We would arrive early in the day and park behind the main street stores where all of the horse trailers were to be located. The horses would be un-loaded from the trailers and tied underneath some trees in the area. There would be visiting amoung the men and women, well in short it was a reunion. Perhaps that is why the big rodeo 3 day event is called "The Texas Cowboy Reunion."
Around lunch time the women would began bringing out the food that they had brought with them. Everything from roast beef- fried chicken to sandwiches of all sorts. Most families were large so I am sure that is the reason the food was prepared at home..You just did not "eat out" much. After we had lunch we were allowed to go to the main street square and select a spot from which to view the parade. Mom would take one of her worn quilts and spread it on the curb for us to sit on. The parade would last for a hour or longer--as I said the parade was always a good one.. Afterwards everyone headed to the rodeo grounds --we ran around and played while the adults visited. Later in the day everyone went to the chuck grounds on top of the hill near the arena to eat "supper"--the ranches in the surrounding counties would all have their chuckwagons there and bar-b-que cooking along with beans, potatoes of some sort, corn, sourdough bread and big cast iron pots of cobbler--You selected which of the ranch chuckwagons you wanted, bought the tickets and "chowed down."
Afterwards you headed to the arena to get in your seat before the rodeo kicked off. Daddy, Mickey and Mike would head down to the arena. In later years the two of them were participating in the bucking stock events. Daddy roped for many years there and Jerry would be in the barrel racing competion.
Yes, there are memories galore of our days spent at Stamford every 4th of July--I often think that I would like to go one more time but I doubt that I do, I don't want to be disappointed by the way things have changed .. I want to keep my memories of the fun filled 4th of July spent there as they were in the good ole days...