Showing posts with label Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Fort Worth Stock Show and Rodeo. Show all posts

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

Volunteers Feed Fort Worth Stock Show's Homeless Day Laborers

I saw that which you see here this morning on Facebook.

Apparently the Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo is employing Fort Worth homeless people as day laborers.

And, according to the Facebooker's comment at the top, we can intuit those homeless day laborers have been provided 6,000 sack lunches from Fort Worth churches.

As you can see, the source for the photo and the caption below the photo is the Fort Worth Star-Telegram.

I tried to find the Fort Worth Star-Telegram article about the Stock Show's homeless day laborers, to no avail.

How much are the homeless day laborers being paid, I can not help but wonder? Are they being paid in free lunches?

How do the Fort Worth homeless people get transported to the Fort Worth Stock Show? Do buses arrive each morning in the Fort Worth Homeless District, on the opposite side of downtown Fort Worth from the Fort Worth Cultural District, where the Stock Show is located, to take the homeless people to the Stock Show?

How many homeless people are being day laborers at the Stock Show? And what labor are they laboring at during the day?

Who decides who gets hired for the day? Is it first on the bus gets the job for the day?

I remember a shocking experience I experienced soon upon my arrival in Texas. I was checking out the Water Gardens in downtown Fort Worth. At that point in time the elevated I-30 freeway still hovered over Lancaster and the south end of downtown. When I drove away from the Water Gardens, in my white van, I saw a statue like thing, looking all neglected.

I was curious about the neglected statue, and so I stopped to check it out. I had barely exited the van when I saw that dozens of men were running towards me. This made me a bit nervous. And then suddenly they stopped and went back from whence they came, that being under the elevated freeway.

I was later to learn that these were day laborers, desperately hoping to get work for the day, who thought I was driving a van looking for someone to work for me, and then realized I was just a tourist. I had never experienced such a thing before and at that point in time I had no idea such a thing existed in America.

Anyway, I wonder if a similar scene occurs each morning in Fort Worth's Homeless District when buses arrive to haul day laborers to the Stock Show?

By the way, that neglected statue I was checking out was a monument to Al Hayne and Fort Worth's Spring Palace. The neglected monument has since been restored to its original glory and now is surrounded by a park-like setting befitting its historical significance.

Tuesday, January 14, 2014

The Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo Plus The World's Biggest Non-Mechanized Parade Is This Week

I was in Albertsons yesterday evening and came upon the poster you see on the left. This was the first I realized that the annual Fort Worth Stock Show & Rodeo time of the year is here again.

In the time flies department it seems like only yesterday I was convinced I was going to make it to the 2013 Stock Show Parade.

However, I did not make it.

I do not remember what events, if any, conspired to keep me from getting myself to downtown Fort Worth to watch the Stock Show Parade.

I have seen many extremely well done parades since I have been in Texas. The Stock Show Parade may be my favorite. I have watched this particular parade twice.

I think the thing I like about the Stock Show Parade is the fact that it is totally non-mechanized, billing itself as the biggest non-mechanized parade in the world.

I have no idea if it is true that the Fort Worth Stock Show Parade is the biggest non-mechanized parade in the world, used to, as I am, to not blindly trusting Texas propaganda.

How have I managed to miss any pre Fort Worth Stock Show promoting til last night's poster discovery?

The Stock Show starts up in only three days, on January 17, with the Stock Show Parade taking place the day after the opening, Saturday, January 18.

I have no current urge to haul myself to downtown Fort Worth on Saturday to watch the Stock Show Parade for the third time.

I have until February 8 to haul myself to Fort Worth's Cultural District to the location of the Stock Show & Rodeo, to make my second visit to that event, but, I currently have no strong current urge to do that either.

Currently all my urges are at a very low ebb....