The Lone Star Spectacular, one more time!

This past Saturday, 25 August, was quite a day at Fiesta Texas! Projected attendance was very high, with a major portion of it being employees of Dell (the computer company, headquartered near Austin). Therefore, the gates opened about 9:15 a.m. and we interviewers were asked to clock in if possible by 8:30.

Yup, I switched positions at the theme park again. I'm now an interviewer for Marketing at the front gate, and later in the day within the park. The later interview involves approaching Guests who are resting in the shade (e.g. while other family members are on a thrill ride they don't care to experience), striking up a conversation with them and then asking if they'd consent to do an in-line survey of their park experience once they return home, to help Six Flags make the park experience even better. That part of the job is "right up my alley" so to speak, and gives me opportunity to "push" the terrific shows of this park, winner of the "Golden Ticket Award" for Best Shows for eight straight years!

Earlier in the day (usually 9 to 2) I do palm pilot surveys (demographic) in the front gate area; this is what I did in '04 and '05. For once, today I gained 100 surveys! One question on the palm pilot survey asks for the Guest's ZIP, and Saturday I got a lot for Pfluegerville, Round Rock and other Austin area ZIPs, thanks to so many Dell employees coming in.

But God bless Dell and their employees! You've heard of a show being "back by popular demand"? Well, thanks to "Dell demand" the park showed the Lone Star Spectacular one more time this past Saturday nite!

I got to spread word about the showing and to thank Dell employees for it. While I was doing the in-park interviews I "pushed" the extra showing, giving proper credit to Dell for this. I finished with 11 consents to do the on-line survey, just after 4 in the afternoon, and went to the Admin Building to drop off the forms. As I passed the Arboledo Picnic Grounds, reserved for a huge and (I'm told) de-e-elicious Dell employee picnic, I heard Toby Keith's recording of "Shoulda Been a Cowboy" -- I love that song! It perfectly expresses what I've cherished in a corner of my heart since growing up in the remnants of the Wild West in Idaho.

. Shoulda been a cowboy, shoulda learned to rope and ride
. Wearin' my six-shooter, ridin' my pony on a cattle drive
. Stealin' the young girls' hearts, just like Gene and Roy
. Singin' those campfire songs, Oh, I shoulda been a cowboy!

Having delivered the papers at Admin and taken a second break at the Take-A-Break employee cafe, I returned to the front gate area, to hand out coupons like I did on 5 July. Whenever I saw someone wearing a Dell shirt, I smiled broadly and thanked them (for the return of the L.S.S.).

As soon as I got signed out (or "off the clock" so to speak) just before 9:00, I made a bee-line for the Lone Star Lil's Amphitheatre and my favorite spot in it to watch the laser and fireworks celebration of Texas and America. I inquired from Guests already sitting nearby if they'd ever seen the show. When they said "no", and I ascertained that they were Texans I assured them that they would lu-u-uv the Lone Star Spectacular!

Since more than once I've mentioned this, my favorite feature of Fiesta Texas, I should give a synopsis. The show opens with laser clouds, laser lightning and the sound of thunder, then the galloping of a herd of mesteños (mustangs). Then laser images of two huge hands -- the Creator's presumably -- take a hammer and chisel and shape a laser outline of the State of Texas on the cliff wall, and then lift a huge branding iron to brand it with "Texas" in playbill-type letters. A longhorn erupts thru this, and then a cowboy appears, to tell the audience that "it takes a lot of songs to tell a story as big as Texas". He's San Antonio Sam, the laser-image narrator of the show. His assistant -- she's too pretty and smart to be called his sidekick -- is Alamo Annie.

Together Sam and Annie lead us thru a quick history of Texas, starting with indigenous tribes like the Caddo and Comanche and ending with admission of the erstwhile Republic into the Union as a state. Strangely, nothing is said about the Confederacy, and indeed little is made of the six flags that flew over Texas -- despite this now being a Six Flags park! (The first park of the corporation was Six Flags Over Texas, opened in the early 1960s in Arlington.) Then we get a tour of a few of Texas' cities, each represented by at least one song, starting in Laredo ("Streets of Laredo") and going thru Dallas (theme from the TV soap "Dallas"), etc., to San Antonio ("San Antonio Rose"). The latter being the home of the theme park, it gets a little extra treatment: mariachi music, mention of Fiesta (the April party-to-end-all-parties), the "Chicken Dance" celebrating the German heritage, and Rodeo.

Then Sam boasts that Texas also features plenty of sports competition, indeed "a plethora of teams" -- to which Annie interrupts that she hopes Sam isn't using a word like "plethora" if he doesn't know what it means. Various Olympic or professional sports heroes are celebrated (my faves are late Cowboys coach Tom Landry and former record-setting Rangers pitcher Nolan Ryan -- oh, and David Robinson and Tim Duncan of the Spurs) as well as teams. This athletic celebration segues into a celebration of America, which includes salutes to the five military services by the playing of their anthems. This US Army veteran always sings along on "Over hill, over dale, we will hit the dusty trail as those caissons go rolling along. . .", the Army's anthem. Presidents associated with Texas are honored, including the current occupant of the White House and our First Lady -- they were Governor and First Lady of this State before moving east to DC. And the Americana portion wraps up with "God Bless America", rendered so movingly that my head always leaks.

The finale is San Antonio Sam's laser image returning to the cliff (assisted by Alamo Annie, of course), asserting that all the varied regions in the huge state make up Texas, and that "it's people like you who make Texas the friendliest State". Sam calls for a loud "yee-haw!" from the audience, and then the laser rays and fireworks go crazy as a recorded orchestra plays a rousing rendition of "Deep in the Heart of Texas"

And this is the Lone Star Spectacular -- back by Dell demand for one more '07 appearance. God bless Dell! God bless Texas!

You might say, dear reader, that this past Saturday was a Grand Finale for the Summer of Ought Seven! Today the park is closed, and it will only be open on weekends (to include Labor Day) until end of October. For today is the first day of classes for 2007-08 for public school students and teachers here in Texas. And I already have a substitute teaching assignment for Thursday and Friday in Alamo Heights High School -- defending State Champs in $-A Division 1 football!