I was there too, with my chicken suit that I was commissioned to fabricate by Guich, via Igor Loving. I'll tell the story after other folks recall it. Here's a photo of yon suit. There's another one. Somewhere.
Ted On Fri, Jun 14, 2013 at 3:59 PM, Mixon Bill <bmixon...@austin.rr.com> wrote: > Posted by permission of the author by Mixon: > > A long time ago in Fredericksburg, Texas, they held the Luckenbach World’s > Fair, the brainchild of Hondo Crouch and Guich Koock, who bought the little > town in the Texas Hill Country. They made it a favorite hangout for Waylon > and Willie and the boys, and lots of lawng-hurred country folks from Austin > and other parts. Later they sold the whole thang again. Why was the fair > held in Fredericksburg? Well, Luckenbach was charmin’ to visit, but not big > enough to hold a couple of thousand beer drunks all at once, and > Fredericksburg had a stadium for rent > > I thank it wuz June 1975. I went thur from Lubbock on the weekend out of > boredom, just to git away from my grad stoodent studies at Texas Tech. I > mean, how many millipede gonopods can you measure while staring through a > microscope? I was goin’ cross-eyed, and my wife wasn’t much interested in > going, so I went. Had I a friend who hadda been interested I woulda taken > him along. That reminds me of this example of Texanese that my Dad used to > quote, “Well, if I’d a knowd you’d a goed, I’d a let you a’rode, leastwise > I’d seen you had a way to went.” That was how I felt about it too. > > So, I drove my old Chevy 4x4 down there and when I arrived I immediately > bumped into cavers from Austin—Charlie Loving, Gil Ediger, Don Broussard, > and lots of others. We wandered around, drank beer, and sampled the food at > the booths on the grounds. Eventually I moseyed up into the bleachers, which > wuz shady. > > They wuz hostin’ various events, and pretty soon they announced a Laughing > Contest. A no-holds-barred-make-it-up-as-you-go Laughing Contest, with some > vague trophy being offered. By this time I was half full of beer and feelin’ > pretty jovial, so I joined up. I went down front to the stage, where they > had notables like Slim Pickens, Hondo, Guich, and Frank X. Tolbert as > judges. Also Sarah somebody, a famous Texas politician whose last name I > can’t recall, but she was good-lookin’. > > I asked about rules, and they didn’t have any. So, the first man gets up to > the mike and he tells some cornball joke and slaps his thigh and laughs. The > crowd sort of laughs, and we’re off to a start. Then the second man takes > the mike and tells some long windy joke and they sort of laugh, but not too > much. I’m thinkin’, “Man, this is pretty lame. I can do better than this.” I > think I was third, or maybe fifth—I didn’t really care at this point. So, I > decided to do something unusual. There I was already sort of lookin’ weird. > I had lawng hurr stickin’ out all around from my dark blue denim engineer’s > cap, a big mustash, jeans, cowboy boots, and a t-shirt that said, “Lucky Me! > I live in Lubbock!” with a cartoon of a dood clingin’ to a road sign while a > tornado has him blowed out sideways with his pants comin’ off. > > I stepped up to the mike, which was on a stand and connected to a big sound > system. I said real low, “lucky me…I live in Lubbock.” Then I started to > laugh in a real low register, then I went up the scale gradually in a > sustained crescendo, culminating in a foghorn, hootin’, exhalin’, inhalin’ > drug-crazed ape virtuoso hollerin’ extravaganza, while I staggered about the > stage draggin’ the mike stand with me. It was almost scary. I didn’t know > where it came from. I didn’t know I had it in me. Gawd, the crowd went wild! > > OK, so maybe one or two more performed, but they were a mere shadow to my > virtuoso hootin’ performance. The judges huddled together, then they said > the crowd wanted me to do it again. So, I did it all again, but even longer > and better this time. I thank the laugh I did reached mebbe 100 decibels, > and that’s just at the mike. In the bleachers all them beer drunks musta > heard it louder, and they all went apeshit at my apeshit laugh. They cheered > and stomped and jumped up and down, and I was awarded the grand prize. It > was a trophy made by Charlie Loving out of a copper toilet float, glued to a > little basket with sticks and strings and mounted on a 2x4 to look like a > hot-air balloon. And on top it had a plastic Indian chief holdin’ a > tomahawk, but his other arm was bad, missin’ a hand. It was colorful, just > like I felt and everyone felt that day. > > Later on Charlie came lookin’ for me, said that CBS News wanted to talk to > me. I never did see them. I camped out with my caver friends that night, and > next day I drove fast back to Lubbock, which we called Buttock, the Hub, the > new metro city of the south plains. > > I have a Kodachrome slide of this event, showing Slim Pickens awarding me my > trophy. That’s for all you naysayers out there! > > I had such fond memories of this event that I put it in my resumé, or CV. > There it remains today. The only trouble I ever had over that was when I was > testifying as an expert witness in a lawsuit in Austin. I was recounting in > court some technical work I did while employed at the Texas Department of > Health, sort of on behalf of the plaintiff, who was injured working in the > gas sterilizer area of a hospital. I used to troubleshoot gas sterilizers > and anesthesia equipment for the health department using a special gas > detector, a large infrared spectrometer. The defendant’s lawyer, > representing a big manufacturer of hospital equipment, thought he had found > a way to discredit me as an expert witness. He said, “Well, MISTER Elliott,” > (ignoring my Ph.D. and my accomplishments), “I see here that you were the > World Champion Laugher at the 1975 Luckenbach World’s Fair! Would you like > to tell us about that?!” I just looked at the jury, and said, “Yes, Slim > Pickens awarded me that trophy. I am very proud of that!” I grinned, and the > jury all laughed—they loved it! And the big company lost the lawsuit, I > think based more on my technical work than my laughing contest story. But > who knows? > William R. “Bill” Elliott > Jefferson City, Missouri > 13 June 2013 > ---------------------------------------- > Always forgive your enemies. Nothing annoys them more. > ---------------------------------------- > You may "reply" to the address this message > came from, but for long-term use, save: > Personal: bmi...@alumni.uchicago.edu > AMCS: a...@amcs-pubs.org or sa...@amcs-pubs.org > > > --------------------------------------------------------------------- > Visit our website: http://texascavers.com > To unsubscribe, e-mail: texascavers-unsubscr...@texascavers.com > For additional commands, e-mail: texascavers-h...@texascavers.com >
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