Oh Lord, it's hard to humble....you know the song. Gotta love the attitude in it. While I am not always braggadocius, I' m not against doing a shameless bit of self promotion when it's called for!
2007 - what a year! Not saying it was a lucky number 7 kind of a year in all aspects, but when it came to the World Tamale Eating Championship, it was a great year for us.
You know what they say ~ Third time's a charm.
We were changing the location of event again, but this time it was going to be held on the steps of City Hall. I was working more closely with the City Staff who were now heading up the Western Days Festival and we were definitely on the same page with the layout and scope of the event. We worked through the small details that needed to ironed out before the contest with no problems. I had several of the Hot Tamale girls returning and had even talked another long time customer into letting her daughter join us. We really are a family here at Dallas Tortilla & Tamale Factory!
The event was still going to be held in conjunction with the Labor Day Rodeo that had been happening at the rodeo grounds for over 40 some odd years. Western Days had been the brainchild between the Lewisville Saddle Club and our business association, the OTBA. Although I loved the rodeo and and had sponsored many a junior rodeo queen over the years, I was suggesting that we consider another date, since the heat and last minute summer travel plans seemed to work against us in the attendance of our event.
But that year it was still Labor Day Weekend and I was excited to be sponsoring the event as well as holding a customer appreciation party for my customers at the shop. Plus the added bonus of having City Staff do a lot of the ground work for the overall event was awesome. As I was no longer serving on the Board of Directors of the OTBA, and frankly just plumb wore out, I was glad to have them taking over much of the grunt work. I could finally just focus on our business and the Tamales!
Things were looking up for us. Eater X wanted to return to the event and other ranked eaters began to take interest in our little event. The City was going to even give us a tent to use in exchange for our donations of the tamales and of all the work that I was doing. This was going to be our year, I thought. My husband was even going to help again, and I had developed a well woven team of family, friends and customers to help me execute the event. Everyone was excited with how the event was growing and wanted to be a part of it. My father and uncles were proud of me.
Driving up to the event site that morning on Mill St., I drove along with several tractors carrying bales of hay and young people riding on their floats getting ready for the parade. I heard a few excited YEEHAW's floating down the streets in Old Town. It was a beautiful September morning and the world was right. Yessir, things were looking up for Dallas Tortilla & Tamale Factory....
Closing time...time for me to fly...stay tuned for more about the actual event known as the World Tamale Eating Championship.
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