High Points from El Camino Real

Folks along El Camino Real were wondering what happened to our beautiful spring weather on Friday and Saturday when rain and a strong cold front hit our area.
It was especially cold and wet for the large crowd of folks gathering at the Cherokee County Junior Livestock Show in Jacksonville. Fact is I don’t think the folks at the show even noticed it much and just kept right on enjoying themselves watching our young people enjoy themselves. I sure would have rather taken a good nap than give you your six bits worth of news, but there are several things that y’all need to know about, so duty calls.
Folks from one end of the county to the other congregated in Jacksonville from Wednesday until Saturday for the Cherokee County Junior Livestock Show. Some rain, a little mud, and a cold north wind didn’t slow the show down one bit. There were some changes to the show this year, that seemed to work really well.
My hats off to ever who thought of putting saw dust down over the red dirt in the show barn. Every year I came home from the show with three pounds of red dirt up my nose, but this year no matter how hard those kids kicked the floor all they did was scatter sawdust. It’s funny how much kids love to kick dirt. The Show Committee also added a baked goods category and a jams and jelly category. I had the honor of giving the blue ribbon for best jam or jelly, but I guess that makes sense.
I’ve never seen a fat guy give anybody an award for the best head of lettuce. This show is a testament to the young people, their parents, Ag teachers, 4H Club leaders, and countless other volunteers that work hard to make this show a success each year. In fact from all I’ve heard so far this could very well be one of the biggest livestock shows yet. You could see the pride in the faces of all the exhibitors as they showed off their projects to the judges and all the many visitors that came to enjoy the show.
You can’t put a price on the smiles I saw on the faces of our young people at the show, but the people and businesses of our area did their part at the sale on Saturday night by paying out lots of money to some hard working kids. A big thanks goes out to everyone who did their part again this year to make the Cherokee County Junior Livestock Show a huge success. Give yourself a big pat on the back, you’ve earned it!
Charles Dickerson was in his usual place in the announcer seat calling out the winners. I’m so use to hearing his voice combined with the sound of cows bawling, pigs squealing, and kids playing that I often wonder what he’d sound like in another place.
This year his grandson Jerrod Dickerson was showing a lamb and when it came through the sale Charles Dickerson was grinning from ear to ear. Some folks said they haven’t seen a smile that big since back in the early eighties when Carlton Jones and Frank Diamant got to be in the front of the line when the federal government was giving away free cheese. A big thanks to Charles Dickerson for his dedication.
I’ve been going to the Livestock show for more years than I can remember now with all three of our boys. This year I had all of the boys there along with my little one year old grandson Sawyer. It was his first show and I think he enjoyed it. I know I did. Families making memories, that’s what its all about.
I had a nice surprise on Thursday noon when Beverly Milner dropped by with Sue Liles. I had to come out of the garden to visit with her, but I didn’t mind because I could tell my hoe was getting tired and needed a rest. It was the least I could do for the niece of Virgil Schochler who was the man that got me started gardening in the first place.
Sue has been living in Florida with her daughter Susan and her husband Roger, for several years now, so it was good to see her and catch up on what has been going on in her life. Sue looked great and said that she was enjoying her new life in Florida. I got the chance to enjoy Florida for a good many years myself, but finishing concrete in the Sunshine State wasn’t ever as nice as being retired down there.
I kept watching the weather and decided that all the stuff that I had planted in my garden was going to get killed by the frost on Monday morning if I didn’t do something about it. I went down to the Dollar Store Sunday morning and bought about 140 styrofoam cups. I covered everything up with cups and put dirt on them so they wouldn’t blow away.
You can do this if the plants are still small enough, but you have to remember to uncover them when it warms up. Sometimes I don’t know why I go through all the headache and worry of farming, but I enjoy it, so guess I’ll take the good with the bad.
Our public schools will be administering the dreaded STAAR test next week, so take this in mind when plan any activities so your students can be ready for the test. It is a very stressful time for many of them. Good Luck! Keep the stories coming and I’ll spread them around.

I’ll see ya next week! And remember, Insanity is hereditary. You get it from your kids.