Fun at City Park
Second Weekend of Autumn Trails

by
Maryann Miller

The arts & crafts show is always popular with visitors to all the activities at City Park on the second weekend of Autumn Trails. It is always fun to see artists and crafters who come year after year, as well as new artists. This year there were several new artists.

Lisa Davidson showcased her Wild West Glitz, a business that has evolved out of a hobby. "I was always making western art pieces and jewelry and giving them away as presents," she said. "Then I decided to start selling them."

Her business is brand new - she just started in September - and she is going to various shows around the area to introduce people to her western and rustic home decor, horseshoe art, metal art decor, crosses, frames, signs, and jewelry. She does most of the pieces, although her daughter, Lana, does the horseshoe and metal art. "She's the welder in the family," Lisa said.

People can shop Wild West Glitz online, as well as in person at show.

Carlos Miller, the Tym-Za-Flyin clown, likes to bring his bull, Hasbeen, to the shows and let people take a short ride or get their picture taken. He clarifies that Hasbeen is no longer a bull. Hence the name.

This was Kathy Bulls (below on the left with her mother, Sandy Willis) first time to bring her work to Winnsboro for the show. She lives in Tyler, but her mother lives here. She has been doing crafts for a number of years. "It's a real creative outlet," she said. "I'm a do-it-at-the-kitchen table kind of crafter. I like to have something going all the time."

Among the many decorative items Kathy had, were these perpetual calendars made from wood. They were quite popular among shoppers, and Kathy said she wishes she could take credit for the concept. "Actually, I saw them made by another artist and just decided to do some of my own designs."

Over at the tractor show and pull, there were a couple of exhibits of hay baling. The Red River Antique Tractor Club had a baler that makes very small bales of hay that Travis Skidmore said are mostly used for decorations for Halloween and Thanksgiving. The machine is 1/8 the size of a regular antique baler, and Skidmore said that about 10 members of the club worked to make the miniature.

In addition to coming to shows, the club takes the baler to schools for demonstrations and Skidmore said the kids really like it.

Skidmore (L) and Eddie Simmons (BG) were also giving demonstrations on rope making. Cade Hayley (M) and Timothy Thompson from Winnsboro were getting their lesson on rope making that Saturday morning.

Cade and his grandfather, Mike Burns, manager of Valley Feed in Winnsboro, were part of the crew working the antique baler right across from the mini-baler. Visitors could go from one to the other to see how hay was baled long before the balers used today. It was a lot of hard work.

Cade is an old hand at competing in the tractor pull, and he won first place in his class Friday night. He pulled 74.81 feet with his 1943 John Deere H. He is 13-year-old and attends Memorial Middle School in Winnsboro.

There were many wonderfully restored antique tractors, including these two Farmalls owned by Dan Prochaska from Sulphur Springs.

More and more women are giving in to the urge to drive a tractor and compete in tractor pulls, and Sandy Hallman from Quitman is one of those women. She has a sign on the back of her tractor that reads, "I spend more time with my tractor than I do my husband." Although she clarified that since they are both tractor enthusiasts, they spend time together working on the tractors.

Sandy pulled 95 feet in her first pull Friday night and 75 feet on the pull Saturday. She explained that a lot of factors can affect the length of a pull, so that kind of variance is common. She has had the tractor for 7 years and has been pulling for 3 years. "I got a tractor for therapy," she said. "There is nothing more relaxing to me than riding out in the country on a tractor."

Sandy said she is a country girl through and through. She grew up on a farm near Wylie, Texas, and has always preferred rural living. Luckily, her husband shares that preference and her penchant for tractors. "We decided we like this hobby real well."

She is so into tractors, she even has miniature tractors on her earrings.

The smell of BBQ wafted over the crowds at City Park and there were a number of cooks competing in the BBQ cook off. Justin Cason from the Double C Steakhouse was there with his signature BBQ, as was Steve Broadstreet, from Arlington. Steve borrowed the rig he was cooking on, since he didn't want to haul his all the way to Winnsboro. "My parents are from down here," he said. "And that's why I showed up. They talked me into entering."

Steve may have made it sound like he was forced to come, but he appeared to be having a good time as he was preparing his barbequed chicken. "Yeah. This has been fun," he admitted.

That seemed to be the sentiment of everyone who came out for the festivities of the second week of Autumn Trails. And of course, no Autumn Trails event would be complete without an appearance by the Queen and her court. L-R: CJ Satterwhite, Jalen Safford, and Holly Stone.