Rattlesnake Roundup redux

- Nolan County Coliseum -

I was looking for information about the upcoming Rattlesnake Roundup in Sweetwater and came across some comments, long, long comments, about how barbaric it is to hunt snakes and kill them, accusing the people of Sweetwater of forcing their children to witness reptile beheadings and skinnings and ruining the socio-ecological landscape of the West Texas animal kingdom. I would like to turn the kaleidoscope and show the context of the event from my view.

The photo shown is the coliseum, the hub of roundup. All the captured snakes are there. In the past twenty years, I haven't gone in there, except for a brief ten minutes about ten years ago, because it costs a lot of money to get inside that building. Also, the smell of fried snake and live snakes does not make a pleasant potpourri, and people are packed shoulder to shoulder on the arena floor. I've been going to the roundup most of my life, so, to me, if you've seen one snake, you've seen them all.

I go for the free entertainment, the flea market. I get nachos with jalapenos, curly fries and a funnel cake, every year. The roundup is a tradition for my family, although I must admit, as everyone goes their own way, soon it will be just me making the yearly trek.

Here's the set-up: Directly to the east side of the coliseum is the inside flea market, five long aisles of merchandise in every form, so full of people that it's a long troll past booth after booth of t-shirts, antiques, purses, rugs, jewelery, books, doo-dads and whatzits. About half a mile to the east is the carnival. Half a mile to the south is the open flea market. The distance from there to the carnival must be a full mile, with the park in between, which even at this moment is filling with rv's and campers, and where the BBQ cook-off is held. There's also a faux gunfight in the park, OK Corral-style, that occurs at intervals.

The place is full, full, full of people and I go to see them, not the snakes.The excitement and bustle that is infused in the town the week leading up to the weekend of the main event is contagious. A lot more is going on than just snake-skinning.

Oh! And this year is the added excitement of seeing Riley Sawyers, star (that's the way we see it around here) of Rattlesnake Republic.