When I first came to Canada I never expected to be in Calgary for Stampede. I thought I would be working in Winnipeg and make a trip to Montreal for the Jazz festival or the Comedy festival during the summer at best. Both of which would have been terrific. But Stampede is billed as the Greatest Outdoor Show on Earth. That's a big claim. I wanted to see if it was true.
I wanted to find out if I did have an inner redneck and what she might be like. The idea was exciting and a little scary. Would I start shouting "Yee-haw and Ya-hoo"? Would I put a poster of Keith Urban (without Nicole) on my bedroom wall and start singin' love songs about yellow roses and diamonds? Would my hair develop an un-natural lift?
Stampede begins with a parade downtown on the opening day Friday. It is an unofficial public holiday for all businesses downtown, including my work and Laura's which gave us a paid holiday. Marc arranged to take the day off his work to join me for the parade festivities.
The Stampede parade is the biggest in North America, 2nd only to the Macy's Thanksgiving day Parade in New York City. This was so exciting ! Laura lived on 10th street in an apartment building with a 2nd storey balcony on the parade route. The parade was due to start about 8.30 am on the Friday morning.
I live within walking distance of Laura's house. However, Laura had invited a group of her friends to her house for a Stampede breakfast and to watch the parade and I'd offered to help. So we had a sleepover at her place the night before. I brought my packed western clothes, my Alberta Boot company boots and my pyjamas straight from work and I was set. We had take out chinese for dinner. The Chinese restaurant across the road had a banner up when I first arrived in March which said it was "Comming soon !!" It had opened and was excellent food.
After eating we watched a little TV and mostly talked about the upcoming Stampede. Laura had the idea of photographing our cowgirl boots sitting together by her fireplace. To me it reminded me of hanging stockings up at Christmas. And so the Legend of the Stampede Fairy was told for the first ever time.
The Stampede Fairy is a mystical cowboy. He is young, (20's-30's) wears a Stetson, Alberta Boot Company Boots and jeans. He lost his shirt in The Great Rodeo, so unfortunately he has to go shirtless. The night before Stampede, he travels from house to house in Calgary on his silent horse. Where he finds a house with cowboy boots by the fireplace, he leaves Big Rock (Alberta brand) beer.
Nobody knows why. It's just what he does.
When I woke up the next morning, there was beer in my boots. It was better than 20c for a tooth for sure !
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