I have watched a strange thing or two over the years in Texas and Fort Worth. I don't know, for sure, if this morning's attempt to dye the Trinity River purple was the strangest, but I am sure it is in the Top 10 Strangest Things I've Seen in Texas.There was quite a large crowd assembled in Trinity Park to witness the spectacle of turning the Trinity River purple.
Fort Worth Mayor Mike Moncrief read an extremely long proclamation that ended with him decreeing that the purple section of the Trinity River was re-named Horned Frog River.
Before Moncrief's proclamation another politician spoke. A female. I've no idea who she was.
In the picture you are looking at Moncrief pouring a glass of purple dye that looked like grape Kool-Aid into the newly christened Horned Frog River.
Now, this was a bit of a pep assembly, so Moncrief's hyperbole could be forgiven. I guess. This was the first time I've seen Mike Moncrief up close and heard him speak, at length. I wish I'd thought to whip out my video camera and record the entire speech. Some of Moncrief's verbiage was shockingly ironic. I can't quote it exactly from memory, but he said something very Jesus-like, about Fort Worth looking out for the least among us. And being the #1 city in America. Or was it the world? Darn, I wish I'd turned on the camcorder.
As you can see, Moncrief is bookended by two TCU Cheerleaders. You can also see the Trinity River behind Moncrief. At this point in the proclamation he had not yet re-named the river. You can also see that it already looks sort of purple. When I first saw the river I thought it had already been dyed, plus there was a white froth on the banks that I thought might be dye related. When the actual dyeing did begin there was pretty much a collective rolling of the eyes watching. It was that bizarre.
Soon after Moncrief emptied his glass of purple dye into Horned Frog River a tanker truck on the other bank started spraying what looked like water. This was the dye. People started muttering. The tanker sprayed for maybe 5 minutes before there was no more dye to spray. The only change to the river was the effect of the spray as it landed. When the spraying stopped I could detect no color.I asked a couple people if they saw any purple. They didn't. One lady told me her husband told her there was no way they could turn the river purple.
The crowd of hopeful purple river watchers quickly melted away after the tanker spraying stopped. The only purple I saw, besides on TCU people's clothes and the cheerleader's sign, was "GO FROGS" painted on the Trinity, I mean, Horned Frog River Levee.Okay, now I've got to tell you the really weird thing that happened. Someone came up and asked me if I was Durango Texas. That has never happened to me before. Not in Texas. I've had it happen in Washington. I've sort of slightly had it cross my mind that this might happen and that the person might be cranky about something I'd said about their, I mean, my, beloved Fort Worth.
I asked the questioner why she thought I was Durango Texas. She said she read my blog, read what I wrote about the plan to dye the river purple and that I looked like the pictures on the blog. So, I confessed that I was the culprit. We exchanged a few pleasantries and then I wandered off taking more pictures.
A couple minutes later I sat on the river bank to listen to Moncrief. I was slightly paranoid, noticing a few people looking at me and not at the mayor. Maybe it was something behind me they were looking at. Like I said, I was slightly paranoid.
Anyway, I'm glad I watched the purple river spectacle this morning. I found it entertaining. And more so than before I'm appalled that 70% of 6% of Fort Worth's eligible voters voted that man to be their mayor. Like I said. Bizarre.
