Our economic radar screen has caused us to scan in wider perimeters and this weekend we find ourselves courting danger in Waynoka Oklahoma for the 63rd annual SnakeFest. We attended this event with curiosity in hopes of finding some additional customers & markets for our buffalo hide products.
Geographically speaking…..Waynoka is where the “handle meets the pan” in Oklahoma panhandle region. Upon our early arrival we are befriended by one of the organizers and she has invited to park the StarShip on prime real estate during the festival. The town of Waynoka has some serious train history and also avation history. Our first visit prior to the festival beginning was the local museum and began to understand the Charles Lindbergh aviation connection to this community. He also spent his honeymoon in Waynoka at the local restaurant and hotel. Trains roar past the little town hourly both day and night.
The local festival is a distillation of a curious group of people. The nearby state park (Little Sahara) is known for sand dunes of some magnitude. During Snake Fest they hold an ATV, dirt bike, 4 wheeler convention at the park, engines snort constantly, day and night. The rattlesnake fest attracts the Harley Davidson crowd of bikers which are also allowed to travel on their bikes up and down the thoroughfare of the event site. ATV, motorcycles, trains and snakes make for a heady mix of activities. We are a bit apprehensive about the weekend, as all of this is a bit beyond our scope of understandings. We are here to appreciate another aspect of human interests and behaviors.
I’ve connected with a local musician that plays serious western swing music and we enjoy a some time together. In a “Waiting for Guffman” moment the New York City TV photographer shows up and wants to do some filming of me playing some music. I pondered.. very little…..signed her release forms and played a tune or two. I’m left to the whims of her interpretation of this event and curiosity.
For security purposes, we’ve switched our camping location to be closer to our exhibits and tents. We are now located between the railroad (100 yards away) and the main street (25 yrds away). The night life is a bit more than raucous. 2 to 3 a.m. Hee haws never softened in volume, the bar was a riot of activity and Friday was the “tame” night!
Folks… this is a Snake Fest… yes, Rattlesnakes, they hunt’em, they show’em (pits of snakes all 4 to 6 feet long, big around as softball bats!) and then… yes they eat’em. Whew! Curiosity got the best of me and I try to reconcile my attendance. I decided to go to the snake pit area… and in the back was the butcher shop. They do everything to process and package this meat for resale.
Humanity is quite removed from the production of food marketing. If you have carnivorous inklings you recognize that throughout history animals from all parts of the food chain have been used to create protein. I decide to walk toward the back of the building and peer into the butcher shop.
Its colder and quite damp and dozens of curious folks watch the events unfold. 9 ½ feet from me stands a fellow with a very large and live snake in his hands. Next to him stands stands a man and his “tree stump”, …he’s holding a hatchet. I realize….I’m feeling dizzy and perhaps this isn’t for me………I back up…and out of the building.
NO, I didn’t… and I won’t be trying rattlesnake.
An hour later we are alerted to a tornado sighting north of town and that high winds, heavy rain and hail will arrive within the next 15 minutes, 4 to 7 inches of water flood the intersections.
Perfect reason to pack up and head on down that long lonesome highway. We may have been overly anxious to get home…we traversed 5 states in one day.
The Waynoka SnakeFest is a curiousity and is positive reflection of what a community can do to promote itself.
If I get up the nerve… we’ll return! No Rattlesnake for me….but….WAY TO GO! WAYNOKA!
Bill Keitel
Buffalo Billfold Company
