Community celebrates Cowboy Day

Published 11:09 am Wednesday, July 26, 2017

Members of the community, vendors and reenactors from across the region saddled up to celebrate the fifth annual National Day of the Cowboy on Saturday at Victoria’s Railroad Park.

The event provided a plethora of ways for participants to become involved. Reenacted shootouts from the Tom Mix Rangers, an organization that performs re-tellings of cowboy escapades, setting them in the Victoria of yesteryear, was one such way.

Other activities included free hayrides, getting a glimpse of The General Lee — the famous vehicle from “The Dukes of Hazzard” — and scouting vendors for specialty-made clothing and accessories.

Live music took place at the park’s pavilion, featuring Rebecca Bryant — “The Singing Cowgirl” — who was awarded

Female Vocalist of 2016 by the Virginia Folk Music Association of 2016 (VFMA).

As temperatures soared into the upper 90s, people beat the heat by taking shelter under the pavilion, getting a beverage during the event’s barbecue cookout with proceeds benefiting the Boy Scouts, and grabbing snow cones provided by vendor Planet Ice.

Connie Crenshaw Hendricks, of Lunenburg, said she attended the event for a few years. Her daughter, Callie, a rising sixth-grader, took the event in stride.

“We just got through the rodeo,” Connie said, noting Callie participated in the event’s kids rodeo competition.

During the rodeo, young racers took to stick horses and weaved them around barrels and other obstacles.

Connie said Callie also took part in a rodeo competition using her bike, attaching a cotton horse to have it resemble a trusty steed.

Callie said the rodeo was her favorite part of the event.

In addition to riding cotton and felt horses, she also got to take a ride with Casper, an appaloosa quarter horse with the Tom Mix Rangers.

Bob Wallace, a member of the Tom Mix Rangers and impersonator of the famed Lash LaRue, of Western movie fame, joked that he kept LaRue’s signature weapon, the whip, in his vehicle.

He and fellow ranger and Sunset Carson impersonator Bob Atkins autographed photos for children and adults alike.

“I’ve been doing this for almost 30 years,” Wallace said. “It’s a lot of fun.”