A gust of wind on Thursday last caused the early unveiling. The State Fair of Texas opened the next day, Friday, September 27, 2013. Fair officials had planned to drop the curtain at 2 pm on Friday with all the fanfare and hoopla the event deserved. Nature intervened, as it had last fall.
On October 19, 2012, as last-year’s fair neared its close, Big Tex, the tall cowboy who had greeted fairgoers for sixty years, was severely injured in a fire. Badly burned, the long frame was carefully lowered to the ground. Covered with a huge blanket and flanked by ranks of Dallas police at silent attention, the big Texan was escorted from the fairgrounds through the crowd of sad-eyed followers and removed to a secret location. It was not known if the booming voice of the mild-mannered superhero would ever be heard again above the throngs of fall fairgoers. There was a long sadness in the empty avenues of Fair Park.
No more. On Thursday, high winds billowed the curtain. The fabric dropped, and there he stood. At the chicken stand across the way, Kristi Blakeslee, who was preparing for next-day’s opening, glanced over and up. With a smile and tear, she said to the reporters who flocked to the scene, “He looks really good.”
He does, and it’s good to have him back.
No one knows for sure who Big Tex is or where he really came from. Some say he had an early life down in Kerens, Texas. No doubt, there are parts to that story that are true. In a way, parts of Big Tex are from all over Texas. You can see the hard sun from the open range in the lines of the worn face, the heavy-lifting of someone who has no fear of hard work in the barrel chest and long arms, the swagger of the oil fields in the glint of the eye and the turn of the head, the pride of a job well done in the shiny belt buckle and fancy boots, and the presence of a friend who knows his place and is never far in the kind smile under the wide brim of the cowboy hat. I think Jacqueline Floyd said it well in the Dallas Morning News: “It’s the Tex-ness that really matters.” It’s not where he hails from or the places he’s been and all those he’s reached with a helping hand. It’s not even because he’s so big. It’s because Big Tex is Texas, ever fiber of him, and we love him for it.
After the rest and recuperation, he’s even bigger.
For the statisticians among us, Big Tex has some truly amazing facts. From heel to hat, the rangy cowboy stands a neat 55 feet tall. That’s a long, tall drink of branch water reaching up to the bright Texas sun. There are no guy wires holding up this big fella. No need. Coming off his new training programs, Big Tex weighs in at an even 25,000 pounds. With that weight, he’s able to stand in those boots in hurricane-force winds. Yep, Big Tex has new footwear. Modeled after the Texas State boot, the rugged and colorful boots are each 10 feet 6 inches long, 11 feet 9 inches tall, and tip the scales at 900 pounds each. To wear those shoes, you gotta have big clothes. Big Tex’s cowboy shirt is made of 150 yards of material, weighs about 130 pounds, and has a 200-inch neck and a 325 inch in-sleeve. It doesn’t stop there. His denim jeans consumed 100 yards of fabric, weigh 100 pounds, and fit well on the 240-inch inseam and 434-inch waist. Around that trim 434-inch waiste rides a big belt and a big belt buckle for a big cowboy. And, from his off-season training programs, our old friend has some new moves to greet and catch your eye as you enter the fair grounds and stare up in amazement.
Enough. It’s time for a visit. There’s enough of Big Tex to go around, so don’t be shy and stop by, if you can. There’s something special about the voice of a 55-foot cowboy echoing out and over the grounds of the State Fair of Texas. Something special from someone who’s very special to Texas and the world.
It’s good to have you back, Big Tex, and “Howdy, Howdy, indeed.”
Grandpa Jim