I don’t watch any nfl games. I do, however, keep track of who is winning and will watch highlights. I just refuse to spend any $s with that organization and I don’t want to be counted in any Nielsen ratings for watching the stuff.
Now, back in the day, I did watch nfl games. Growing up, I was a Houston Oilers fan. Earl Campbell was such a wicked badass! I still think that the Houston Oilers’ uniforms and logos are possibly the best that the nfl has ever had. I’ve been to a Cowboys game in Texas Stadium. While in college, I enjoyed watching the Buffalo Bills. For one, they had Thurman Thomas. But they also had a hard-hitting, fast paced offense. Their defense also had some big time dudes with Bruce Smith, Shane Conlan and Cornelius Bennett. They also had the best special teams player of all-time–Steve Tasker. If you tell me that those early 90s Bills teams weren’t one of the best of all time, you would be wrong. Sure. They were reserve grand 4 straight times. But dang dude, it’s hard to get there. The ’91 super bowl is still the best ever. The game was wicked and Whitney singing the National Anthem is still the example of how-to-do-it.
If you were to walk down the stairs into our basement, you could take a look at a collection of several reserve grand banners from several different species of animals. It is what it is. We’ve made it to the top a time or two but it was WAY more common for us to find ourselves in that reserve grand spot. OYE–1 reserve & 1 bronze. Phoenix–2 grands & 3 reserves. State Fair of OK–1 grand & 3 reserves. And it continued with goats that we raised–OYE–1 reserve grand, 2-bronzes, State Fair of OK–1 reserve grand, Tulsa State Fair–1 reserve grand. And then you throw in kids we helped and well, the ol’ reserve grand list gets real long. It’s fine. There were times that I thought we should have won. Others that I agreed with the outcome, one where the right showman beat us, but with the wrong goat. And even a time at Phoenix where Duke was reserve grand as a lightweight cross behind a littermate that was grand. We had the better pig but not the “right” pig. And I still agree. And I still like buying runts.
It continues into other areas of competition. Take the OK state FFA public speaking finals–four different times, we have had a student that ended up as the reserve overall public speaker in Oklahoma. (3 prepared & 1 extemp) Now, two of those kids did get to go on to nationals. One prepared because the overall winner went religious and disappeared and the extemp because he was 2nd behind Chelsea Clifton, who also won prepared. And ALL of us were happy to be 2nd behind that girl. She still has maybe, definitely, the greatest FFA resume of all time.
And what got me to thinking about all of these reserve grands was an ag mech project. A dump trailer that I now own. I didn’t plan on owning it but I was pushing the bids online and well, I won. Now, I’m glad that I have it. It gets used but it stays parked in the machine shed. This trailer was shown 4 times and was reserve grand 4 times. What?
–2020 Woodward District reserve grand–behind a 3 pt wire roller. Okay, this trailer was yet to be painted. Fine.
–2020 OYE reserve grand–Okay. There were 2 trailers that were in the hunt to be grand. We got the short straw. I’m not mad but still don’t agree. Both high quality projects. Okay.
–2021 State Fair of OK reserve grand–What? Once again, got beat by a good project but we had more electrical plus hydraulics plus WOW factor. Not the same levels of difficulty to build.
–2021 Tulsa State Fair reserve grand–RUSM? A skid steer grapple beat it. So many more features and a much more complicated build.
Okay. Fine. But in my barn, parked next to this dump trailer is the grand from the State Fair of OK in ’16. The grand ag mech project from Tulsa AND State Fair of OK in ’19, the grand at the State Fair of OK in ’18 & grand at Woodward District in ’19, as well as the grand at Woodward in ’21 are all parked very close by. There is NO comparison with this dump trailer and any of these others—NONE! Yet, it is what it is. That badass, wicked dump trailer, as much as I like it, is still a 4 time reserve grand project. I can’t explain how it never won a grand banner. It didn’t and that’s it. Doesn’t matter what I think.
Duke had a goat named “Spasm”. He was a stiff necked, dumb ass wether from Gallagher’s. Spasm was an actual Freaky offspring–complete with HUGE back, tight hide and screwed up, tweaky back legs. Spasm’s show record included being Reserve grand at the State Fair of OK, grand at a $500 jackpot (remember when that was a lot), grand at the Major County Stock Show, Grand at the Northwest District show and Bronze overall at OYE. He was also shown at the Fairview local stock show. He placed 7th out of 8 in that contest. What? Who judged? Doesn’t matter.
If you don’t want ’em beat…..don’t show ’em. I learned this back in the 90s and it still holds true.
Now, as an old(er) dude, I’m learning that those reserve grands aren’t/weren’t all bad. Heck! Now, I might be like Dave Chappelle’s character Tyrone Biggums–“Ya’ll got any more of them lavender colored banners?”
People, have a good one today. Please have a better tomorrow. Pray—today and tomorrow. Because we all need help. And if the worse thing that you have to bitch about is a reserve grand banner—well, at least you were in the hunt.
