The theme of this year's event was “The Fabulous Spring Ho!” And boy was it ever.
Where else but Texas can you have a Spring Ho festival? An event, might I add, that involves neither springtime nor hoes. Although, to be fair, I think the “spring” in Spring Ho has something to do with the sulfur springs in the area, not the season. As for the “Ho” part, though…yeah, I have no idea. The festival started in the early 1970s. I wasn’t alive then, but I’m pretty sure the word “Ho” meant the same thing as it does today.
The whole weekend seems to center around the presentation of Miss Spring Ho and Little Miss Spring Ho. Girls in the running for either position are nominated and elected by popular vote by the citizens of Lampasas, and get to ride on a float in a parade in their honor. Miss Spring Ho is always a local, high school-age girl, whereas Little Miss Spring Ho is five or six. Both young ladies are gussied up very early in the morning and escorted around town like celebrities. It really is a BIG deal.
Just incase you can't read the sign, it says:
"Congratulations Spring Ho Queens Kasi and Kristen"
"Congratulations Spring Ho Queens Kasi and Kristen"
My question: Does Miss Spring Ho put her newly bestowed title on her college application? How about her professional resume? It is – as far as Lampasas is concerned – a great honor. Father’s are ecstatic if their daughter is in the running to become a Ho. Seriously. It’s amazing. You can’t make this stuff up.
The festivities always seem to take place the second weekend of July – just in time for the mercury in Texas to rise above the centennial mark. And the aforementioned parade? Yeah, it lasts a minimum of two hours and doesn’t start until 11 AM. Can you say “heat stroke”?!
Good times.
The 2008 Spring Ho was especially exciting because my father was also in the Spring Ho parade. It was his 50th High School reunion. Dad - along with the rest of the class of 1958 - was stuck on a float and literately paraded through town so that everyone could stare and marvel at the advanced age of the individuals on board. It was awesome. They even gave the class an award.
Amy, TOC, Trevor and I rode behind the class of 1958 in my dad’s camouflaged VW Thing. Our job? To pick up any of the old timers that fell off the "CLASSIC" CLASS OF '58 float, and transport them to safety. It might sound like I am kidding, but about halfway through the parade someone on the reunion float started a twist contest. Surprisingly, no one slipped or passed out from heat exhaustion. I consider that to be a small miracle.
Anyway, here are some of my pictures:
The "Classic" Class of '58 was supposed to dress in jeans and a white shirt for the parade. My father has never been known to conform...
Posing for pictures before the parade began...
The award...
Not Spring Hoes, but as close as we got...
The "young" alumni of the class of 1963...
Every SWAT Team vehicle should qualify as a float in a parade and advertise for Sander's Plumbing and ice...
The Calvary from Ft. Hood...
...and their mule-driven wagon
Class of '58 under attack by a kid with a water cannon...
Following behind the float...
Waving at the kiddoes...
More mule-driven wagons...
...and girls in bathing suits riding horseback
Spring Ho Keepsakes:
My Spring Ho Brochure
My Spring Ho T-Shirt
7 comments:
Ha! Spring Ho, I love it. :)
And thanks for the birthday wishes!
Wonder where Sanders plumbing gets the water for their cheep ice??
Seems like a weird combo.
Ross and I wish we lived closer we woudl enter Addie in the little Miss Spring Ho beauty contest!!
I love VW things, they are so hard to find...and SO cool!! I'm jealous you have one of them in your family :).
I can't believe it!
Deals, you are amazing! Who else could chronicle this! It's funny and Accurate! It will be movie some day! Deals is amazing!!!!
Ug! I'm so mad I didn't get a shirt...or get my picture with a Spring Ho. I really hope they will change the name to "Hot Ho" next year since it's in the summer.
I believe that the word, "Ho", as used in Lampasas's Famous Spring Ho is meant as an interjection showing excitement (as such is the term used in the title to the 1935 John Wayne film, Westward Ho!), and not in the sense that you use the word. Festivals of this type and time period celebrate farming. America was founded upon the idea of the small town and farming communities and that same idea has been perverted into your big cities, high society and social castes, which only feed into and support themselves (and, yes, I’m referencing Jefferson in that—leave alone his problems as he was an academic, not a saint. In my opinion, you use the more modern and simplistic form of the word maliciously to demean small towns in America, especially Lampasas, by labeling them as uneducated, backward, and naïve—don’t forget that your own “debutante balls” are similarly viewed as archaic rituals where an area’s upper crust MEN present their daughters to the town’s most eligible bachelors with certain hopes and dreams…
Humor is appreciated, but not when it comes backhandedly and at others’ expense. You, you bullheaded elitist schmuck, should try saying something intelligible for once in your meaningless premier état life.
Obviously "Anonymous" needs to grow a sense of humor and realize that not everything is a backhanded insult.
In the future I suggest to be taken seriously you might own up to your comments by taking credit for them by name rather than hiding behind an "Anonymous" post.
Wow! Anonymous seriously needs to pull the giant stick out of her a** and chill. Nothing about this entry was backhanded (except the comments from Anonymous). It was a great chronicle of a fun small town festival. It kinda makes me miss my own small town; I wonder who the current Rice Queen is...
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