Tag Archives: Coutts Days
Coutts Days come and gone.
Coutts Days is this weekend and Jim and I have become engulfed in the process of getting ready for it. I’m not sure how it happened , but we have become very involved, very quickly in this little town. Every Coutts Days starts out the same, and has for years, as I mentioned in the last post. They have the Pancake Breakfast and then the parade. This years theme for the parade is Peace, Love and Tie Dye.
One group we somehow got very active in, is the seniors club, and I’m not even a senior. Jim got elected as president, he is a senior, but just barely. We do as much as we can for the group. Some of those people are very senior and often it is much like visiting “the home” when you attend meetings or pot luck suppers. The theme of the parade is basically the 60’s, but this is rural Alberta. Peace, Love and Tie Dye never did make it this deep into ranch country. During the 60’s, the seniors we are working with, were not aware of that culture, so trying to remind them about the sex and drugs and rock and roll is kinda cute. We are helping them build a float for the parade where they all will be Flower Children, they never saw listening and dancing to music they never heard. Should be fun. Neither Jim or I can be apart of the float. I have the trade show and Jim is taking pictures and video of the parade. We are building the float Wednesday, but Jim and I will make all the signs today. We have the truck and trailer lined up, so the ladies just need to decorate.
Now skip ahead to Tuesday after Coutts Days. Or was that daze.
The decorating went okay. The day we said we could help, the other ladies couldn’t, didn’t or forgot to come. They decorated on Thursday. Jim had the music all lined up and working. They won first prize in the parade and as soon as they won, there was a glitch, it got unplugged, they didn’t see that it was unplugged so for the parade, it was quiet. It was the day the music died. Here is the parade.
The trade show went fairly well. Saturday was good and Sunday was a bust. At this point I would love to add pictures of the parade, the breakfast, the show, vendors, but we didn’t take any pictures??? I don’t know where our heads were, but not behind a camera.
The show was a fund raiser for the school, and the fund raising part didn’t do that well. We raised about 75% of what we did last year. People didn’t buy the raffle tickets or bid up the silent auction items. It is what it is, or was what it was. We worked hard and did our best. We will try something new for next year. Like the farmers that surround us, next year will be a good one.
Until next time,
“A Change Is Gonna Come”
Every third weekend in June, Coutts has their Coutts Days. The Coutts Grass Rodeo takes comes t town and a large home coming slow pitch baseball tournament takes place.
The town has their parade and pancake breakfast. It’s a pretty big deal for this little town and has been for forty plus years without change.
I have been working on putting together the Second Annual Coutts Days Art, Craft and Trade Show. Except for last year, there has never been summer craft show here in Coutts. Last year was our first year and it was a hit. Now this year, we are expanding the show That’s where the rub is . This is a small town, 275 people small. There are people who have been here their entire lives and don’t handle change well. So when we come in, bring in new ideas and then doing something about them, it upsets some of the locals. I don’t know how many times I have been told that they never did that before, or that’s not the way we always do it, why should we change now. I also hear that the new people, us, don’t understand what Coutts Days is all about. The idea behind Coutts Days is only about the rodeo, baseball and fun. Tell that to the vendors that are coming down, with their products, hotel rooms, travel costs, 3 days away from home. I have been working to get pots together to sell not just to show them locals. The vendors and I hope to make some money. Making money is a part of idea behind Coutts Days, it’s fun! Also the show gives those people in town something else to do. I am hoping and planning to have a good show.
This town is slowly getting smaller and smaller. Granted, 275 is already pretty small. What some people need to understand is that, doing nothing is still change. People have been doing nothing since they changed the border approach, and long but that’s another blog,and it has gradually gotten smaller and smaller. It has changed and still is, changing. This little town is teetering on the brink. We need all the help we can get, and a trade show that brings in people can’t hurt. Jim, my husband, and I plan to make some changes in this town. If Coutts is teetering on the brink, we want to help push the town over to the productive and growing side. We hope to make changes and change is good.
Until next time,
