Remembering Mom & Dad Herding Fort Worth Stockyard Longhorns With Sister Nancy In A Dress

Microsoft OneDrive Memories from this Day that are a tad special.

The first photo I know for sure was taken in October of 2001. Mom and dad's first visit to Texas to see their eldest son.

Mom and dad's second visit to Texas took place in January of 2009, which is how I know the above is from the first visit, due to January being cold, whilst in October it can still be shirtsleeve weather in Texas.

Both of mom and dad's visits to Texas included visiting the Fort Worth Stockyards, which is where we are in the above photo, watching the Fort Worth herd of longhorns pass by. An event which takes place twice a day.

That is mom, on the right, watching dad try to take photos of the herd with his Olympus digital camera. During their visit mom repeatedly instructed dad to take a photo. I doubt those photos ever made their way off the camera.

Both mom and dad visits to the Fort Worth Stockyards also involved going to Riscky's BBQ for All You Can Eat BBQed Ribs.

That is another way I know this photo is from 2001. We were sitting outside at Riscky's. In 2009 we were inside, because it was cold.

I would link to my Eyes on Texas website webpage of the Fort Worth Stockyards, which included photos of mom and dad's visit, but, I have decided to terminate my Eyes on Texas website, after letting it live for a couple decades. I no longer update that website. Thus it has become dated. I no longer enjoy fiddling with HTML code. So, bye bye Eyes on Texas.

I have no clue if the above photo was taken on a day in September, or October. I can see the photo has stamped on it "JAN 64". But, that likely is when the photo was developed, not when it was taken. Photo taking was quite primitive, prior to the invention of the digital method of photo taking.

I do not recognize the car behind us. I do know the location is the front yard of 1027 Washington Avenue, in Burlington, Washington.

On the left that would be me, with my little brother, Jake, next to me, then our then extremely little sister, Jackie, holding on to Jake, with big sister, Nancy, in one of the rare instances of her being photo documented in a dress.

This photo would have been taken about six years before the arrival of our final baby sister, Michele....

Does Anyone Need Some Longhorn Bulls To Ramrod On The Chisholm Trail?

And now for something completely different.

I think I have likely mentioned a time or two over the years I have received dozens of email queries asking to buy my various rattlesnake products.

People, usually from Europe, often Germany and the UK, go to my Sweetwater Rattlesnake Roundup webpage and somehow that leads them to think I am a purveyor of rattlesnake products.

The following non-rattlesnake related email arrived from my Eyes on Texas website over the weekend....

Subject: Longhorn bulls for sale

I was told to contact Chisholm trail for purchasing longhorn bulls. If this is correct and u r interested, please call me @ 214-xxx-9477. I have a two year old, one nearly one yr, and a younger one to be weened soon. All registered with TLBAA.

Thanks, Barbara

I explained to Barbara that my only connection to longhorns is I have a webpage or two or three with longhorn related info. And that I also made a webpage of the long defunct Chisholm Trail Days event in the Fort Worth Stockyards.

I also made a webpage devoted solely to the Fort Worth Herd, complete with video, if I am remembering correctly. And, again if I am remembering correctly, Elsie Hotpepper shows up for a second or two in the Fort Worth Herd video. I may have made more than one video of the Fort Worth Herd. I am fairly certain the one with the Elsie Hotpepper appearance is the one that uses a repeating loop of the Lonesome Dove theme song.

I digress.

That longhorn photo you see above is the photo which turned me into a highly paid professional photographer. Backpacker magazine paid me a whopping $100 to use that photo, almost 14 years ago, way back in February of 2002.

I had webpaged photos of an encounter with a rogue longhorn herd on the mountain bike trail one rides at the west end of Lake Grapevine. Someone from Backpacker magazine saw my longhorn photos and then began grueling negotiations for the publishing rights to that one photo.

When Barbara asked me if I was interested in purchasing some longhorn bulls, I drew a blank regarding knowing anyone who might be interested in such a thing.

Well, about a minute ago I remembered Mary has a farm. With a lot of critters. Mary Kelleher, if you are reading this, are you interested in purchasing some longhorn breeding stock? If so, I can get you Barbara's phone number with the xxx replaced with the actual numbers.

A Visit With Stockyard Longhorns Before Finding Part Of America's Biggest Boondoggle Under New Management

Yesterday I made mention of my pathetic attempt to take one of those selfie photos that seem so popular these days,  particularly on Facebook. At the end of that blogging I said...

Anyway, tomorrow morning I am going to be at the Fort Worth Stockyards, taking photos and maybe video. I will be using my old-fashioned digital camera to take photos, not this new-fangled phone method. And no selfies. Well, maybe one attempt with a longhorn.....

To which Elsie Hotpepper text messaged me with...

I definitely want you to take a selfie with a longhorn.

I almost always do what Elsie Hotpepper tells me to do.

In this instance I did not follow Elsie's instructions precisely, in that this selfie is not with just a single longhorn, but is, instead, with many members of the Fort Worth Herd, resting before their daily trail drive duties.

I was in the Stockyards area for an early morning meeting, so, since I was nearby, I decided to do a quick walk through for photo documentation of a theme that has been bugging me ever since a brouhaha has arisen over a new development proposal for the Stockyards.

Today's Fort Worth Stockyards blogging went on my Eyes on Texas blog, with the blogging titled A Look At The Fort Worth Stockyards Before They Are Possibly Ruined By New Development.

My route away from the Stockyards was over Northside Drive. Northside Drive drives by the Cowtown Wakepark. The Cowtown Wakepark is one of America's Biggest Boondoggle's products  that I have long said was doomed to fail. I believe the Cowtown Wakepark was the first of The Boondoggle's products to become available for public use.

Since I was in the neighborhood I decided to take the turn to the Cowtown Wakepark parking lot to watch all the people enjoying the great sport of wakeboarding, which J.D. Granger so proudly announced as such a wonderful thing for the people of Fort Worth, and beyond, to have available, so that the masses can enjoy the sport of wakeboarding in an urban setting.

Well.

When the Wakeboard pond came in to view I was not too surprised to see no one wakeboarding.

And then I saw the trailer you see above. A food truck, I wondered?

On closer look I found that which you see below, taped to the side of the trailer.

What a shock. Cowtown Wakepark is closed. This is likely the first of what will be one failure after another of America's Biggest Boondoggle's products.

Has the closure/failure of the Cowtown Wakepark been reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, with me somehow missing that bit of news?

Is the Coyote Drive-In still showing movies? That product also seemed doomed to failure once the novelty wore off.

Are We Having A Showdown At The Fort Worth Stockyards Cattle Pen?

Big Ed emailed me asking why I'd not opined about this.

With the this to which Big Ed referred being the info contained in the article you see part of here, screen capped, titled Showdown: History and the future face off in Fort Worth Stockyards.

Recently something called the National Trust for Historic Preservation put out its annual list of what they considered to be America's Most Endangered Historic Places, with the Fort Worth Stockyards on this year's list.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation apparently thinks a $175 million project planned by Fort Worth's Hickman family, partnered with a California developer called Majestic Realty, is an "insensitive development" which threatens the historically significant Fort Worth Stockyards.

I don't know where in the Stockyards this proposed development is to take place, but one paragraph in the article tilted me to being against this development....

“It certainly ought to be a wake-up call to [Majestic owner Ed] Roski and the mayor that trading those cattle pens for modern-day restaurants and retail is foolish,” Murrin said. “Our national and international reputation is what tourism in the Stockyards is based on. It’s not just preservation for preservation’s sake. It’s good business.”

This project wants to take down the part of the Stockyards which is a stockyard? That being the cattle pens and the walkway that takes you above the cattle pens? That walkway is what the cowboy is standing on in the above photo.

And the cattle pens are where the Fort Worth Herd lives when the Longhorns are not in Trail Drive mode.

I was hoping this proposed development was an improvement, not something destructive, because the Fort Worth Stockyards could use some work.

Much has improved since I first visited the Stockyard, but many boarded up eyesores remain, such as the New Isis Theater.

Why does the city not do something about the New Isis eyesore is a question I have been asking since late in the last century.

The sidewalks in the Stockyards could use some work.

After dark the lighting in the Stockyards is terrible.

It has long seemed to me that Fort Worth sort of turns its back on its one and only actual tourist attraction that people in other parts of the planet actually know about. Visit the Stockyards on any summer Saturday and you will run into a European or two or three. Often Germans.

With Mom & Dad At Riscky's BBQ In The Stockyards Watching The Fort Worth Herd

I came upon that which you see above a couple days ago whilst looking at webpages I'd not looked at in a long time. That is my mom, on the right, looking at my dad, on the left, trying to take a picture of the Fort Worth Herd ambling their way through the Fort Worth Stockyards.

Our herd viewing vantage point was from the outdoor patio at Riscky's BBQ where we were having the all you can eat ribs along with other Texas delicacies.

The webpage on which my mom and dad appear is titled FORT WORTH HERD IN THE STOCKYARDS. On that webpage there is a link to another webpage, with that one titled FORT WORTH STOCKYARDS VIDEO on which, if I remember right, if you watch the video, and pay close attention, you may see Elsie Hotpepper.

The above photo was taken during mom and dad's first visit to visit me in Texas. I believe this was in late October or early November. I know the year was 2001, shortly after 9/11.

Also anchoring the time frame in my memory is I remember driving mom and dad south on I-820 when something came up in the conversation which had me picking up my phone and calling my sister's number in Arizona.

My favorite nephew Jeremy answered.

Jeremy was 14 or 15 at that point in time. Jeremy was home alone and being a bit nervous. It was from Jeremy we learned that America had begun its bombing of the Al Qaeda terrorists in Afghanistan. This was Jeremy's first experience where he was old enough to understand what was happening when America was starting up one of its ubiquitous wars, hence the being a bit nervous.

Seems like only yesterday, but that phone call to Jeremy took place almost 14 years ago.

The last time mom and dad visited me in Texas was in January of 2009. On their first visit, mom could still see. On the last visit mom's macular degeneration had rendered seeing very problematic.

I called mom and dad on Saturday and learned my dad is about to get a pacemaker installed. I don't think mom and dad will be taking any more roadtrips to Texas. I probably should be taking myself on a roadtrip to Arizona....