Description: Ticket stub reads : Calgary Stampede Chuckwagon Races & Grandstand Show 8:00pm Friday July 9, 1982 Admits to Stampede Park 2 2 2 2 TWO 2 2 2 2 The bottom of the stub is pink and says NORTH MAIN T***
Sec: N box: N row 0 seat 82 $12.50 s/c included
Story: In 1982 my family vacationed in Canada heading west from Winnipeg, we visited the Royal Canadian Mounted Police Academy in Regina Saskatchewan, we attend the Calgary Stampede and spent a bunch of time in Banff and Jasper looking at mountains. We also stopped and visited relatives in Edmonton.
The day in Calgary was memorable for many reasons. It was a very long day. My mom had a cousin who worked downtown, and he let us park our car at his place of work. From there we hauled lawn chairs and blankets and found a place on the street to watch the parade. We were told to get there early, so there was a lot of waiting. Finally the parade started. Lots of horses. Lots of floats. Mom made a point of taking a picture of the float sponsored by the city of Winnipeg (her childhood home). After the parade we headed back to the car and by then we were hungry. My childhood is one of a lot of picnic lunches. Eating out was mostly for special occasions, but it was too long of a day and there were really no places to picnic in downtown Calgary. We found a submarine sandwich shop and, for the first time ever, we all shared submarine sandwiches for lunch. The long bread and the stacking of vegetable and cold cuts - it was all very new to us in 1982. They were good. After that we walked, and walked, and walked, to get to the Stampede grounds. I remember a lot of walking. As the grounds came into sight things got a bit more crowded, but it wasn’t hard to stay together.
I understood what a county fair was, and Mom said the Stampede was like a big fair. We went into the exhibition hall and explored various products and things. There was a floor sales pitch about cheese. It had samples. The guy explained that cheese is best eaten at room temp and talked about how best to eat it. After that our family became cheese and cracker enthusiasts for the rest of the trip. I remember eating a lot of farmers cheese. I had very limited cash resources, so I contented myself with picking up free buttons from whatever booth was offering them. I remember my Dad getting into a long debate with a man about abortion in front of a booth for a Canadian right to life organization. The man angrily walked away saying my father didn’t understand what a burden having a child was when you had no money. Dad yelled after him saying that every child is a blessing. The people at the table shook my fathers hand and thanked him for his support.
The day went on and I remember the walk up the grandstand to our seat being long. I took my seat and was happy to be able to sit for a while. Then it was time to wait again. The chuck wagon races came first. There were two men in front of us exchanging cash after each race. I asked my mother about it and she said they were gambling. My parents did not approve of any form of gambling.
The races were fun to watch. As the show went on it got darker. They had a fireworks ground show celebrating great legends of rodeo. I didn’t know any of the names or faces that were lit up on their pyrotechnic display. After that they launched fireworks set to music. We were in Canada. So the selection of songs was interesting. One was familiar. The words sung were “I love the sky on the 1st of July.” Sarah was amused by the lyric change since we knew it as “I love the sky on the 4th of July.” They were impressive and right over our head. It made up for the fact that we had once again had poor country timing and were in the US on the 1st and in Canada on the 4th. Something that annoyed Sarah greatly, that so many summers we missed seeing any good fireworks shows, because we always seemed to be in the wrong country.
After the fireworks it was a long walk back to the car and then from there to our hotel. It was dark and unlike when we arrived, everyone was leaving at the same time. I was fine while we were in the grounds but after we got out of the gates I got distracted for a moment and almost got lost.
On this long trip, in the days before portable electronic movie players, we amused ourselves in the car in various ways. One was to try to get a list of license plates from as many states and provinces as possible. Rebecca was the keeper of the list. We had gotten so many states and as I was leaving the grounds I saw it, a car with an Alaska license plate. I had never seen one before. I stopped to read the numbers to commit them to memory so I could report it to Rebecca, but then when I looked up I realized that I couldn’t see my family any more. I was scared, but I kept moving with the crowd concerned that I didn’t know enough to know what turns I would have to take to get back to the car. Suddenly I saw my father walking at a quick clip towards me. He grabbed my hand and we caught up to Mom and my sisters who were standing still while the flow of people broke around them. My feet hurt and I remember shivering a bit in the night air. I kept holding my fathers hand. It had been years since I had held his hand, or any grownup's hand for that matter. After all I was going to be in the 5th grade. Still even when the crowd thinned I didn’t let go. I hung on to his hand until our car was in view.
We didn’t get into our hotel room until past midnight. It was very late for me and I was exhausted. At most places Mom was able to get a cot for Rebecca, and Sarah and I would share a double bed. This place didn’t have cots and mom was not going to waste money on a second whole room, so it was decided that I would bring in a sleeping bag and just have to sleep on the floor. I was not used to being on the floor, so I didn’t sleep well that night at all.
