Another Labor Day is almost over–I want to share my traditional Labor Day with you. Today my brother and I went to the Las Animas Country Rodeo in Trinidad, CO, like so many years before. Neither of us had attended the rodeo in years–we wondered how much it had changed since our last visit?
As a child, this was an every year event–coupled with the annual 4-H Fair. It was our only family vacation, starting on the Thursday before Labor Day. Our 4-H commitments lasted through Friday, then we enjoyed the daily rodeo Saturday, Sunday and Monday and a big country and western dance each night on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. All of the 4-Her’s in Las Animas County came to Trinidad for the duration of these events and was a big party for us all. Usually a carnival with rides filled the parking lot–the bright lights and noise were absent today.
Today, we were pleasantly surprised to see the attendance was good at this year’s rodeo–neither of us knew very many people in the grandstands. We enjoyed each event and watched a late summer storm come in over Fisher’s Peak. The sweet, fresh smell of rain wafted over us before the rain hit the arena. The cowboys and cowgirls continued the rodeo through the rain–no, the latter events were not canceled due to the rain.
The Westernaires, a high school riding group from Denver, entertained us with a variety of horse riding skills–it was good to see them again.
All in all, the ghosts of the past whirled around me–sitting on the edge of the Bloom Mansion yard as a child watching the parade, dances, the horse barn and all the fun there, friends from all over the county that congregated each year, carnival rides, and laughter–but I was able to enjoy the present day rodeo as it was, celebrating our Labor Day tradition once more.
What did you do for Labor Day? Do you have a tradition?
Larada Horner-Miller is a poet, essayist and accomplished multi-genre author who holds a bachelor’s degree in English, with a minor in Spanish and a master of education degree in Integrating Technology into the Classroom. She is the accomplished author of six award-winning biographies, historical fiction, memoir, and poetry works plus three self-published cookbooks.
Her sixth book, Coronavirus Reflections: Bitter or Better?, is available in paperback and four e-book formats. Larada offers the reader the opportunity to look back at 2020 and the global pandemic through her prose and poetry through reading, then reflecting and responding. She addresses all the emotions she felt during this overwhelming time and leads the reader through to a self-access: bitter or better?
Her fifth book is the authorized memoir and biography of world-renown square dance caller Marshall “Flip” Flippo. Just Another Square Dance Caller: Authorized Biography of Marshall Flippo is available now in hardback, paperback and four e-book formats. Recently Just Another Square Dance Caller won two awards: Book Excellence Awards Finalist and Silver award for eLit. Book Awards.
Another recent book of hers, A Time to Grow Up: A Daughter's Grief Memoir has won many awards including being a 2018 Book Excellence Awards Finalist in the Memoir category at the New Mexico-Arizona Book Awards and a 2018 Independent Press Distinguished Favorites Award in the Memoir category. Horner-Miller has also been a past national presenter at the Women Writing the West Conference and is currently the creator of Memoir Workshops for others who want to share their family’s legacies through words.
Larada and her husband, Lin, enjoy being nestled in the mountains above Albuquerque, New Mexico, near the village of Tijeras. When not writing books, this passionate, energetic, and enthusiastic woman loves to spend time kicking up her heels at square dancing gatherings, traveling, knitting, and reading.
As co-manager of her family’s southeastern Colorado ranch, she enjoys spending time exploring her family’s historic ranch and reminiscing with her brother and his children about their mom, dad, and granddad.
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