Telegram Sam
Shoot 2 Thrill
402
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Posted - 2012.10.19 17:20:00 -
[1] - Quote
Ah man.  I met the guy who built Big Tex. Old guy with a white beard named Jack. Looked kind of like the miner guy in the old cowboy movies. [Old timer tale follows, elective reading...]
We were in one of those big hangar-like buildings at the fairgrounds building a float for the Cotton Bowl parade. The head of our rabbit was built separately, and we amateur college guys couldn't figure out how to get it put on. The body was about 30 feet tall, and this 8-foot-wide steel-frame head had to go on top. Old Jack comes along and sees the problem. Disappears, comes back with a rope with some kind of ball weight on the end. With one toss, he throws the weighted end over a steel rafter about 50 feet up. Let's it down, so we were able to use tie the head on and use the rafter like a pulley to hoist it up and put it on the body. This was about midnight, and the float judging was at 8:00 AM the next morning. Old Jack saved our butts. And our float actually beat the pro builders and won the grand prize for the Cotton Bowl parade. But wait, there's more....
We had to take the head back off to get it out of the hangar thing. Otherwise no way to get to the parade site downtown. Now we knew how to do it, so we managed. We get to the parade site at about 10:30 PM, New Year's Eve. Now we have to figure out how to get that head back on, but out in the open air with no rafter to use. Guess we need a crane. But it's 10:30 New Year's Eve, and we're flat broke. Well, guess what, here comes old Jack again. He sees the problem and calls up a friend with a crane. The guy will not only do the job just before midnight New Year's Day, but on credit. (This was long ago, before college guys with no income had credit cards). Anyway, the job gets done a little after midnight, and next morning we're able to do the parade with a non-headless float. Old Jack had saved our butts again. The guy was like some mysterious stranger or guardian angel that shows up in a story.
So I sure hate to hear that about Big Tex. Jack's creation, and a DFW icon for many years.... |