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Stock Show is time for all generationsBy Larry Dreiling I was on the phone a couple of days ago with my oldest nephew, Mike and his wife, Jennifer. Last March, they became the proud parents of their first child, a little girl named Reagan. Mike and Jennifer live in the Denver suburb of Arvada and wanted to know when I was going to make it out "back home to Colorado" for my annual trip to cover the National Western Stock Show. For the last few years, I've taken Mike and Jennifer along with me for one day. Usually, we'll take in one of the livestock shows, maybe walk the Yards and take in a rodeo performance. This year will be different. "We gotta take Reagan along to see her first cow," Mike said. The comment took me back to my earliest Stock Show memory. Because my brother and sister are many years older than me, I have few major recollections of them and my parents doing things together with me--the five of us. One of the few things I do remember doing as a family is going to my first Stock Show rodeo. It was an evening performance, I recall. I had to be no more than 4 years old, because I know I wasn't in kindergarten yet. I remember sharing some cotton candy with my sister. I don't recall any of the cowboys, but I wouldn't be surprised if Jim Shoulders, who passed on last year, was there. Heck, maybe even cowboy Slim Whaley, whom some of us here at High Plains Journal credit as the model for our corporate logo as the man on his horse, could have been there, too. I remember it being loud, with a live band and the sight of the horses and the people in their costumes. They must have been the Westernaires. For some reason, I especially recall my dad holding my hand as he led me to my seat, in what I thought then was the huge Denver Coliseum. A few years later, my dad and I went along as my late brother-in-law took Mike and his little brother to the Stock Show and rodeo for the first time. Now, in just a few days, Mike and Jennifer will tote little Reagan in her stroller to see what Stock Show fans call "The Most Magnificent Creatures on Earth." Her mom already has a pair of little pink western boots for her to wear. I can't help but think how cool this is, how one generation is passing on the wonderful traditions of the Stock Show just as Dad gave them to me, how they passed on to Mike and now, onto his little girl. Hopefully, Reagan--even as a girl living in the suburbs--will grow up to develop an appreciation for the usefulness of animal agriculture. How animals are used to profit man through their service to us as food, as clothing, even as pharmaceuticals and cosmetics. Even better, because of that education she'll gain from the Stock Show and her even shoestring familial connection to the land and animals, she'll one day attend school armed with information, ready and able to brush back the disinformation of the animal rights extremists who no doubt will infiltrate that school with their freebie propaganda, in hopes of achieving their goal within the next decade of giving legal status to these creatures as equals to man. In a couple of years, I'm sure she'll join her folks and great uncle Larry for a rodeo performance. I'm sure she'll have a great time as her dad and great uncle before her both did, the first time they went to the Stock Show. I can't wait. Even for those long removed from the farm or ranch, the people of Denver have embraced the National Western. It's always a wonderful time to walk that old Coliseum concourse, the Hall of Education and even The Hill and The Yards and see families together. It's also a time for education of kids--in knowing all about animal agriculture and how it benefits them. I'm hoping the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and that little Reagan's first time at the Stock Show will be the start of her education about agriculture, as well as the continuation of a wonderful tradition in our family. Larry Dreiling can be reached by phone at 785-628-1117 or by e-mail at ldreiling@aol.com. 1/7/08 Date: 1/2/08
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