Yah Hoo, Tally Hoo

The spelling of the words in our title is intentional, focusing on the phonetic effect more than the proper literary spelling and standard usage. On Calgary Stampede this past weekend, variations of the same were heard all over as a city uses one of its former economic functions to drum up participation in the visitors’ industry that obviously attracts a crowd this time of the year.

Geared to the visitors’ sector, the city by the confluence of Bow and Elbow rivers relived the region’s history of being the cattle marketing and meatpacking center of Canada. In 1912, four wealthy families who received the dominion’s grazing rights to attract farmers from the east to the Northwest established the “greatest outdoor show on earth.” I wore blue jeans, a wide belt, with a wildly colored cowhand shirt, a wide-brimmed cowboy hat, and a neck pendant (bolo tie), draped a red bandanna, but my feet skipped the cowboy boots.

I visited Calgary in the ’70s while living in eastern neighbor Saskatchewan province. Calgary sprawled of agricultural spreads and ranches but the cowboy hats were definitely fashion mainstay among the populace. It was also a center of an emerging energy industry, and many in the parish church where I attend Mass are employed in corporations reaping the short financial gain on a long-term ecological challenge.

The energy industry defined Calgary and Alberta’s relationship with its neighbors. I remember when there were more flights from Calgary to Denver and Houston than there were for Toronto and Ottawa. That was very telling.

Last Sunday, my pew seatmate introduced himself as an employee of Husky Oil. Our conversation turned to his views on Russia’s signing of a long-term contract with China on the national gas from the Russian Far East to Manchuria where I reside. A pipeline from the fields to Qiqihar in Heilongjiang is already in place. When my Husky Oil acquaintance bid goodbye at church, he revealed that Canada discovered a bounty supply of natural gas, timely for EU, so I said that, perhaps, their company can go easy on the tar sands of Alberta slated for pipeline shipping to the Gulf of Mexico. He just chuckled. More than 80 percent of those I shared coffee with at the parish were dependent on the energy industry, including Suncor that’s developing the tar sands’ fuel supply and Enbridge that’s building the Keystone XL pipeline.

But it is the Rodeo and Exhibition events that drew the crowd during this year’s Stampede. The parade on July 4th in the downtown area, marshaled by no other than William Shatner of Star Trek fame early in the morning, launched the 10 days of music, food, excitement, education, friendship, and community.

Functionally, the Stampede began the day before La Fete du Canada, Canada Day on the First of July. Media did not foist a theme. It was participatory, asking everyone, “What is your Canada?” (Google CBC’s coverage of Canada Day in the Capital.)

The world’s richest (by prize) tournament-style rodeo headlined the events July 4-6. The event’s caliber came down to the skill of the competitors and the qualities of wild and untamed horses, bulls and steers. A Stampede original is the chuckwagon race at the Rangeland Derby, which scheduled nine evening heats of pounding hooves and trembling grounds.

The nightly Grandstand Show entertained with amazing technology, music, stunts, pyrotechnics, and stunning sets to captivate an enthralled audience. A 4-H parade, and gathering occurred early where projects were displayed and rodeo riding was youthfully performed. Team penning raced against the clock as the athleticism and skills of horse and rider competed, followed by the blacksmiths’ ability tested.

Showcases and displays saw miniature donkeys, stock dogs, cattle trail of the beef industry, equine aristocrats and cowboy challenges, cutting and cow horses with provincial local breeds, miniature horse, draft horse, heavy horse pull, wooly sheep shearing, sheep breeds, agrium ag-tivity, tractors, livestock auction, youth livestock and scholarships.

The Stampede Parade affirmed the excitement mirrored in the Adrenaline Ranch presentations of sky high, gravity defying, and world record stunts at the middle of the Stampede Park. The world-renown Peking Acrobatics performed at the corral show to demonstrate that indeed, the friendly but exciting nature of mosaic Canada can no longer be denied.

It still came as a surprise that Asians predominate over the Caucasians in Canada’s Calgary streets, though not on the Stampede staffing. In a conversation, I mentioned that we should not be too threatened by the “yellow” fever since of five folks on the planet, one is Chinese. I was told that of five people in Calgary, only one now is a Caucasian.

We need not draw the obvious. Saipan’s diversity is a rich mosaic, a given reality. Will we ever get the reality humming the same tune, dancing the same beat and lolling under the sun in a canopy of a big story enough to contain us all? Yah Hoo, Tally Hoo!