Tisdale Ramblers Trade Show Tisdale - Sunday, April 14, 2013 by:Timothy W. Shire
In most years the annual Tisdale Ramblers Rodeo and Trade Show is a sure sign of spring. It is the first Rodeo on the circuit and for Tisdale two weeks before the ice is taken out of the curling and skating rink so this event is the marker for each transition from winter to summer. Well that’s most years, this year it is sunny near freezing and still very much winter but let that not get in the way of an outstanding celebration for the community. The streets of Tisdale were jammed with visitors and many folks had to walk a couple of blocks to get from where they parked their vehicle to the RECPlex. In the main lobby this year there was one display that caught my eye. The municipality and Town of Tisdale are going to come around and pick up used tires. Now that’s a great idea and we signed up to have a couple of unwanteds removed from our yard.
The trade show is a great opportunity for the various service organizations in the community to get in touch with the public about their current projects. Arts Council, Children’s Festival, Wildlife Federation, Museum, Lions, Kinsmen and many more had their booths set up and all had no shortage of people to talk to. This year’s show was really well attended and all of the display areas were used with local businesses and companies and operations that make their living travelling to shows like this. In other years I have illustrated the event with a number of still images. This year I thought I would give you a walk through of the venue in a nearly seven minute long video. I am a bit disappointed in the video as I used an inexpensive dash cam to create the footage and it was not really up to the task so you will have to deal with some pretty blurry pictures but it does give you a sense of the atmosphere of this outstanding undertaking.
It is a fairly expensive commitment for a local business to put on extra staff to man a booth at the trade show but many of Tisdale’s shops pitched in to be part of this year’s show. Most years there is only the concession and the Beeland Co-op booth offering food for sale but this year was different with great food in about five places. Trombley’z from downtown were on the site but the one that got the mouthes realy watering was the curling club’s pie sale seen at the top of this page.
From costume jewellery to tanning to western clothes and art work there was truly something for everybody. Adding to the experience was the large crowd. I had trouble getting my video shot because I would stop to get a clip and someone would ask me to move so they could get by. One thing missing this year was the booth for the local MLA, looks like he decided to skip Tisdale this year.
There were all kinds of great displays and the local agricultural business were on the scene with some of the best booths but besides the machinery, car dealers and various companies telling their story there was just the folks. I thoroughly enjoyed this year’s trade show because I got to meet people I haven’t seen in some time and that is always a great reward. I had a chance to talk to our new mayor and tell him how much we appreciate the effort the town put into keeping the streets clear this winter unlike the mess still on the residential streets in the province’s cities. If you haven’t been to the show in a while mark the date down for next year and be here to be a part of a truly remarkable community experience.
