< Previous30 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 FAIR WARNING Participants still will earn ‘bragging rights’ in modified livestock show story by CHRIS GRAY Ferris wheel riders board their gondolas at the Galveston County Fair & rodeo. This year’s pared-down event, scheduled for April 16-24, won’t include the carnival, shopping vendors, rodeo and live entertainment. file photo by STUArT ViLLANUEVA COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 31 F or the Galveston County Fair and Rodeo, the show must go on. The livestock show, that is. After the COVID-19 pandemic scuttled the 2020 event with just weeks to go, organizers decided to again call off many high-profile aspects of the fair, including the carnival, shopping vendors, the rodeo and live entertainment. But the prospect of another year passing with local students denied the opportunity to exhibit their animals and other projects just wouldn’t fly. (Top) Italeigh Kelley makes noises at her Grand Champion steer, Apollo, during the 2019 Galveston County Fair & Rodeo auction in Hitchcock. Kelley sold her steer for $25,000. Kelley is a senior this year at Texas City High School and will be participating in the 2021 virtual livestock show. (Above) Trophies for Grand Champion auction buyers are lined in a row at the 2019 Galveston County Fair & Rodeo. This year’s modified livestock show will not be opened to the public; however viewers can follow a live-streaming of the show on the fair and rodeo’s website. DAiLY NEWS FiLE pHOTOS32 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 FEATURE “I think this year, no matter how hard it is, we’re going to let those kids show, and we’re going to make those memo- ries,” Barbara Magana Robertson, Fair & Rodeo spokeswoman, said. “It may not be the memory we all had showing animals growing up, but these kids are going to have a memory. They’re going to have that moment.” Typically, more than 400 students show animals at the fair’s facilities at Jack Brooks Park in Hitchcock, Robertson said. At this year’s event, scheduled for April 16-24, the exhibiting areas will expand well beyond the park’s livestock pavilion to accommodate social-distancing guidelines, and attendance will be limited to the exhib- itors, their families, 4-H and FFA advisors and fair officials. This year’s show will be streamed live, however, meaning the public will be able to follow each individual livestock contest — including heifers, steers, lambs, goats, swine, broilers, rabbits and turkeys — on the Fair & Rodeo website. The other major component of the fair still going forward is the barbecue cook-off, scheduled for April 8-10. In a normal year, the fair is bookended by seafood and bar- becue cook-offs. But this year, the cooking action has been moved to the week before the livestock show. The barbecue cook-off usually attracts a couple hundred teams and won out over seafood this year because of the sheer numbers, Robertson said. Although the popular event also will be closed to the public this year, “at least they’re going to be able to have bragging rights,” Robertson said. “At the end of the day, we’ll have a winning team.” Other events going forward include contests such as the Student Art Show, Ag Mechanics — construction projects that encompass everything from furniture to deer feeders — and, new this year, a Youth Project Show. Plans to carry on with select rodeo events such as mutton bustin’ and team roping still were being finalized at press time. Although COVID rates generally have been in decline since peaking in early January, they’re still not near where what organizers think would be safe to hold a regular version of the fair. Although simply moving it a few months into the fall might seem relatively simple, that wouldn’t work for students or animals. “An animal is groomed and raised and fed on a specific schedule,” Robertson said. “That show date is very important. It really can’t be pushed back or forward. Maybe a day, but not really months.” Even setting the pandemic aside, 2021 A Texas flag waves in the breeze in the cook-off area at the Galveston County Fair & rodeo in Hitchcock. This year’s cook-off is scheduled for April 8-10, the week before the livestock show to allow for social distancing. Although the popular event will be closed to the public, one winning team will take home bragging rights. file photo by STUArT ViLLANUEVA COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 33 would have been have been a tough year around the Fair & Rodeo. Paul Tibaldo, who served as the organization’s president for almost 20 years, died in August. But the or- ganization, which sold off last year’s trophy buckles to help replenish its scholarship coffers — among other creative fundraisers — is committed to carrying on Tibaldo’s vision, Robertson said. “In a typical year, you and I would be sitting here talking about a daylong tribute to Paul Tibaldo, or a renaming of something for Paul Tibaldo,” Robertson said. “It’s going to be a hard year for a lot of people, but I think, given the resilience of Paul and his legacy, he would definitely have wanted us to go forward.” Visit www.galvestoncountyfair.com for information about watching the livestock show. Students show their animals during the 2019 Galveston County Fair & rodeo at Jack Brooks park in Hitchcock. Typically, more than 400 students show animals at the fair. (Below) paul Tibaldo, who was a fixture at the Galveston County Fair & rodeo for 43 years, died in August 2020. 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Ybarra knows what they’ll be having. For more than 20 years, the same group of 10 to 12 friends — sometimes more, sometimes less, depending on circumstance — convene for stimulating conversation, camaraderie and story- telling. The laughter is loud and the insults and barbs all are in good fun. A few members of the group are in the ranching and farming business. Others are retired or still active in their respec- tive occupations. They range in age from 65 to 81, with most being from Dickinson and a few from outlying areas. Ernie Deats, a Dickinson rancher, presides at the head of the table — some call the king’s throne — and is the one who ini- tially launched the concept of a daily gathering. Although there isn’t a specific name for what some call a “brotherhood,” attend- ee J.L. Giamalva refers to it as “Rogers’ Brain Trust,” he said. Giamalva, an auctioneer and quarter-horse breeder in Dick- inson, has been going to Rogers for 50 years. It was his high school hangout, he said. “Some of the most intelligent people in the world come to Rogers,” said Giamalva, who sports an American Hat Com- pany 20X silver belly cowboy hat. “We talk about agriculture, the weather, hay bales, horses, fishing, guns, politics and cars, Wally Deats, clockwise from left, Joe Matlock, J.L. Giamalva, Ernie Deats, Walter Wilson, Ron Morales, Billy Patton and Harvey Criswell trade stories and insults at Rogers Malt Shoppe in Dickinson. The group has met for breakfast at the restaurant weekday mornings and occasionally Saturdays for more than 20 years.38 COASTMONTHLY.COM | ApriL 2021 especially when Mitchell Dale is here.” Dale is the owner of auto dealership McRee Ford in Dickinson. Laughter around the table dominates, the jabs come and go. But no one seems of- fended and no one seems to mind the same stories being repeated. “We can take the insults, most of the time, so you have to have thick skin to be here,” Giamalva said. Ron Morales, Dickinson chief of police, has a ranch in Lovelady, Texas. When he points out he’s the only one who is still actually working for a living, someone yells, “But not much.” Morales, who grew up in Dickinson, recalls back in his high school days when he was in the car with Hal Dues and Dues accidentally drove his car into the side wall of Rogers. “We’d just finished football practice and the whole wall was destroyed,” Morales said. Memories of the past as well as current topics are exchanged with everyone talking at once. Rebuttals are common, but everyone moves on to more important matters, with a bit of politics thrown in. “We are all pretty much on the same page with that subject, except for one of us,” Deats said. Fingers point and all are made aware of who that is. Billy Patton, retired owner of Keyworth’s Hardware in Dickinson, often exchanges texts with his fellow breakfast mates as the conversations go on and on, he said. But Dickinson City Councilman Walter Wilson rarely participates because he has an older model flip phone. “I don’t need a phone smarter than me,” he said. “I have text capabilities, but I don’t text anybody back, and flip phones are harder to hack into. But if you really want to know what’s going on in Dickinson, you can find it right here at Rogers. It’s not a rumor unless it started here.” All kidding aside, the friends agree they like to help those who need it. “When Ernie tells us about someone who needs assistance, we all pitch in,” Wilson said. When it comes to outsiders expressing an FEATURE With Ernie Deats at the head of the table, friends Walter Wilson, from left, Ron Morales, Billy Patton, Harvey Criswell and J.L. Giamalva, right, Joe Matlock and Wally Deats meet for breakfast at Rogers Malt Shoppe in Dickinson. “Some of the most intelligent people in the world come to Rogers.” J.L. GIAMALVA DID YOU KNOW? Annie and Owen rogers opened rogers Malt Shoppe in 1960 and owned it until 1994. Descendants of the rogers family still own the property, 4410 state High- way 3. But the restaurant is operated by members of the Margarita and Benito Betancourt family. interest in joining the group, Deats makes the final call. “There are one or two outcasts that didn’t last long, and they shall remain nameless,” Wilson said. Along with Ernie Deats and Dale, oth- er longtime members of the group include Joe Matlock, a retired state trooper; Harvey Criswell, a retired Dickinson teacher and coach; and Dickinson City Councilman Wally Deats. As breakfast dishes are cleared and before the group disperses, a question arises as to who gets Ernie Deats’ head chair at the table when he’s no longer around. 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