< PreviousD o you remember where you were on March 11, 2020, when the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo was canceled? I do. I was having lunch at a Galveston restaurant with a friend when my husband texted me. It was before mask mandates and shutdowns and it made the pandemic real. My husband and I had planned to go that weekend to the livestock show, where his great-niece Abigail Mitchell was showing a heif- er. The Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo was the final event for that heifer because of its age. Abigail had worked hard and was setting up in the barn when the news broke. The news had a chilling effect on this native Texan. Things had to be bad to shut down an event launched in 1931 and that generated $391 million in economic activity in 2019. Thousands of jobs were upended by the cancellation. It felt apocalyptic. After the initial shock about the Houston event, I immediately thought about the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo. Each April, Coast Monthly celebrates the work of fair and rodeo organizers and participants, including the young students who labor all year to show their livestock. Last year, when we went to press, the event was still on but was can- celed after we printed the issue. This year, the event will go on in a modified way because of the pandemic, as you’ll read in this issue. And the popular and highly competitive cook-off is on again under pandemic pro- tocols. That’s something to celebrate. This year also will be tough with the loss of Paul Tibaldo, who died in Au- gust. Tibaldo served as the organization’s president for almost 20 years and is sorely missed by those who knew and worked with him. We salute all the hard work organizers put into resuming any version of the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo. Let’s hope next year the event is able to make a full comeback. In the meantime, we hope everyone who is able participates in the virtual event to support those hard-working students. 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Digestive health conditions and treatments we care for: (800) 917-8906 | utmbhealth.com/digestive-health Scan to learn more about our services I can’t I can’t fight fight thisthis feeling feeling12 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 SHORELINES WE ASKED ON FACEBOOK: The layers of smells from barbecue and smoked meats to fried desserts to roasted corn to the periodic whiff of livestock. The mixture is specific to rodeo, and thus to a good time. Seth Alford Missed the barbecue and the rides. Ed Muncey i miss the bull-riding kickin up the cowboys! The kids chasing the cattle to rope and tie. Cotton candy and funnel cakes. Stacey Gottlob i like that i’m not the one trying to stay on top of that bull for eight seconds. Phil Newton Hard work and perseverance pays off. Last year was a great loss to all of the hard work each student put into raising their livestock. Jim Gainer Oh so many things. As i attended the Texas Cowboy Hall of Fame induction Ceremony last night, i looked around the room to see people i have not seen in almost two years, realizing that this is the core of our country, the people who pro- duce the food, fiber and fuel that we all utilize in our daily lives. Agriculture is our heritage in Texas. What i miss the most is seeing the future of our industry compete with their projects because they pour their blood, sweat and tears into everything they do. Nothing warms my heart more than to walk through the stalls and see these kiddos with their livestock. it makes me proud to be in their company. Kelley Sullivan Georgiades Music and food. Charlotte Beth Fashion! Vanessa Anita Simonson Walking the barns and seeing all the proj- ect animals that area FFA, 4-H and others have raised to show and knowing they have dedicated so much time and energy. And the food — anything on a stick! Forest Riggs Seeing the excitement on the children’s fac- es when their calf, chicken, swine, lamb or school art work wins a ribbon or possibly a scholarship. Leona Pleasant My favorite part of the rodeo is the young adults showing off their livestock! They have such dedication, pride, discipline and love for everything they do to show that perfect animal! it really is a beautiful thing to witness! Allison Schoenvogel i miss the concerts. Liz Garcia Smith What do you like most about rodeo season and what did you miss most last year when the pandemic canceled it? Daily News file photo Morgan Perez, from left, Kassidy Emerson and Riley Ball wait to show their lambs at the 2019 Galveston County Fair & Rodeo in Hitchcock. This year’s livestock show will be streamed online on the fair and rodeo’s website. Read more on Page 22. 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Our Spine Center provides: •A multidisciplinary team of board-certified doctors •Advanced treatment ranging from nonsurgical options to minimally invasive surgery •Expedited appointments (within fi ve business days) •A dedicated navigator •Personalized care conveniently located close to home Visit houstonmethodist.org/spine/clearlake to request an appointment online or call 281.523.3355 .14 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 Jason Garza, with the Los Primos Cookers, checks meat on a pit during the 2018 Galveston County Fair & Rodeo Barbecue Cook-off. Garza and his team are the reigning champions. They are looking forward to defending their title at this year’s cook-off. photo by JENNiFEr rEYNOLDSCOASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 15 FEATURE story by JOHN WAYNE FERGUSON A rnold Garza didn’t know what he was doing the first time he entered a barbecue cook-off. He rolled up to Hitchcock Good Ole Days in 1989 with a plan to cook chicken, ribs and brisket. Sort of a plan, anyway. “The guy that ran the cook-off, he kids me all the time because I was asking like a 100 questions and I was nervous as hell,” Garza said. “I just kept bugging him for all this different stuff.” The barbecue bugging paid off. Garza won second place in the brisket category and hasn’t slowed down since. Over the past photo by STUArT ViLLANUEVA Arnold Garza, head of the Texas Pit Stop BBQ team, started competing in barbecue cook-offs in 1989. His team has won five of the first seven triple crown championships by winning cook-offs at the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo, Hitchcock’s Good Ole Days and La Marque Bayou Fest. THEY CAN STAND THE HEAT Cooking competitions have gotten to be as intense as a glowing hunk of hardwood charcoal 16 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 FEATURE 30 years, Garza has become one of the preeminent cooks in Galveston County’s barbecue scene. He has won so many trophies, they won’t all fit in his house, or in his parents’ house. He took the title of Galveston County’s triple crown champion by winning cook-offs at the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo, Hitchcock’s Good Ole Days and La Marque Bayou Fest. His team won five of the first seven triple crown championships. Ten years ago, Garza retired from his job at as machinist at a refin- ery in Texas City and opened Texas Pit Stop BBQ in La Marque. He later opened another Texas Pit Stop in Galveston and is working on a COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 17 (Clockwise from far left) Jason Garza, of the Los Primos Cookers, prepares to slice a brisket as his father, Arnold, head of the renowned Texas Pit Stop BBQ team, watches; some of the tools of the pitmaster’s trade; Jason Garza slices brisket that was smoked for more than 12 hours. photos by STUArT ViLLANUEVA third in Texas City with plans for another concept in Webster. Barbecue is serious business in Texas. Cook-off competitions are intense. The largest contests draw hundreds of teams and offer cash- prize purses running into thousands of dollars. The scene has grown beyond what Garza walked into in the 1990s. 18 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 FEATURE Barbecue cook-offs are topics of TV shows, and the secrets of winning barbecue can be discovered in a deep dive on YouTube. “The competition has gotten really, really fierce now,” he said. “Back when we were winning a lot, if you had 100 teams out there, probably 30 of those teams were serious cookers. The rest were just out there thinking they could cook. But nowadays, it’s big business.” Even so, Garza and the Texas Pit Stop BBQ team — Jeff Carmen, Sandra Mendoza, Shane Dickerson, Jayne and Bryan Medel- lin — have kept winning. The team’s brisket placed second at the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo Bar-B-Que Contest and last November, it placed second at the Interna- tional Barbeque Cookers Association cham- pionship in Donna, Texas. There are upstart contenders to Garza’s reign, including his son, Jason Garza, a mem- ber of cook-off team Los Primos Cookers. In 2019, Los Primos, founded by Jason Garza’s cousin Dustin Robinson, won the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo’s grand championship. With the fair canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19, Los Primos technically is the two- year reigning champ. Jason Garza said he was looking forward to finally defending the title at this year’s fair. The cook-off will go on this year, but the event will be mostly limited to teams participating in the contest and won’t be open to the general public, according to the Galveston County Fair & Rodeo. There are a lot of reasons to look forward to this year’s competition, the younger Garza said. “We obviously like to compete, but we also just like getting family and friends together,” he said. “And most of the time, it’s to raise money for the local schools and the kids for scholarship. photos by JENNiFEr rEYNOLDS (Clockwise from top left) Cody Robinson, with Los Primos Cookers, spritzes chicken cooking on a pit during the 2018 Galveston County Fair & Rodeo Barbecue Cook-off in Hitchcock; Jason Garza slices a pork loin as the team prepares its pulled pork entry; Garza adds wood to the firebox on a pit; barbecue gloves and a digital thermometer with multiple sensors sit on the ledge of a pit in Los Primos Cookers’ camp.TRIMBLE & LINDSEY 12223 FM 3005 | $950,000 SUNSET COVE 4407 S SUNSET BAY DR. | $117,000 Featured Listings LYNCREST MANOR 116 TUNA | $235,000 MARAVILLA CONDOS 9520 SEAWALL BLVD. #204 | $200,000 MARAVILLA CONDOS 9520 SEAWALL BLVD. #301 | $235,000 SEA ISLE 22027 FRIO | $559,000 BAY WATER CONDOMINIUMS 27020 ESTUARY DRIVE #302 | $255,000 Canal homewith bay access. 16513 Tampico Way | $525,000 | Jamaica Beach23187 Camino | $639,000 | Terramar Beach Beach and bay views in Terramar Beach. ©2021 Better Homes and Gardens Real Estate LLC. 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