Grass Roots Journal; 406; Rodeo Clown / Walk in the Wild / Onion Festival / Toymaker / Combine Races

Good evening, and welcome to this edition of Grassroots Journal. I'm Glen Johnson. And I'm Barbara Dickinson. Tonight we'll meet a young man who's bullish on pursuing a career as a rodeo clown. After that it's an animal adventure, as we take a walk in the wild at a unique zoo in the Spokane Valley. Then we'll travel to a festival in Walla Walla, where we'll see onions, onions, and more onions. We'll visit a modern day Geppetto who is also able to bring his wooden toys to life. And finally, a trip to Colfax, where we'll see a world championship race. But before that, let's step into the rodeo arena. Like most young men, Rowdy Barry has his heroes, but they're not the kind of personalities like O.J. Simpson or Superman. Rowdy Barry has a fascination for a man like Wild Bill Lane. Who's Lane, you might ask? Why, he's a rodeo clown, and reporter Shirley Skidmore tells us why clowns are something special to this young man from Loden. Most little boys want to grow up to be something: a fireman, a football player, but a rodeo clown?

That's been the dream of 16-year-old Rowdy Berry, and through hard work and determination, he's turning his dream into reality. For over two years now, he's been entertaining the fans and tempting serious injury by playing with the bulls in the rodeo arenas of the Northwest. I used to ride bulls and steers and stuff, and then I didn't really feel safe with my hand tied in to the rope, and I knew I was fast on my feet and quick. So I just decided I'd try that. Contracts were up and since ??? Sonny Riley had gave me my first chance at a bull riding school, asked me if I want to come up and try it at that. I went up there for three days and got to start to like it and decided I'd go to bull-fight school back in South Dakota. Then I just started doing small rodeos and then bigger rodeos started seeing me and then a contractor hired me on. And if you think being a rodeo clown looks dangerous, you're right.

Part of Rowdy's job is to add some humor to the event, but he's mainly out in the arena to distract the bulls and protect the cowboys. The gate comes open, I usually have to work the bull, try to make him spin, try to buck off the cowboy is what the contractor usually wants me to do. And then the cowboy, after the cowboy is starting to come off, I go ahead and take the bull away from his hand. Like if he's riding right-handed, I want to turn the bull to my right as I'm facing the bull. And that takes the cowboy away from his hand, so they don't hang up. And then I can go out and play with the bull after the cowboy's safe. Rowdy isn't content to be just like other rodeo clowns. He puts a lot of his own creativity and enthusiasm into his act. For example, he likes to jump bulls once in a while to keep himself and the fans from getting bored. Something exciting to do, you know a lot of times there ain't nothing. You know, bull riders will buck away from their bulls, and you won't have to worry about

doing nothing. So it's just something for the crowd, the crowd likes to see something going on like go out and play with the bull. You know, a lot of clowns, they just go out there, the bull fighters and step out and play, or work the bulls until the cowboy's safe and let the bull go out. I like to go out and play with the bulls too. That's my favorite part of the whole bull fight thing. My whole job is going out, giving the crowd something necessarily, you know, jump on their back from the fence, run across their back, jump 'em, you know, whatever. Sit on their head, let 'em throw you. Even though Rowdy's always been enthusiastic about what he hopes will become his profession, his mother wasn't too excited when he decided to don make up and baggy pants and enter the rodeo arena. I said you've got to be kidding. I, I didn't like the idea. I was afraid for him, you know, because I know what can happen, you know, and it's very dangerous, but yet I really don't think it's any more dangerous than riding a motorcycle or, playing football I think is much more dangerous.

Actually, Rowdy used to play football, but he doesn't have time for it now that he spends most of his non-school hours travelling to area rodeos. He's becoming rather well known around Washington, and his mom thinks he has a promising future as a professional rodeo clown. All the rest of the men he competes against are in their late, 8, 10, 12 years experience on him and as far as his safety in the bull fighting, I think he's pretty good, I really do. I watched him at several matches and I really feel that, that the cowboys can be just as confident in him as they can in anyone else. the safety and the bull fighting, I think he's pretty safe, I really do. You know, I watched him at several matches, and I really feel that, that the cowboys can be just as confident in him as they can in anyone else. Rowdy's been pretty lucky so far, suffering only minor injuries at the hands, or rather horns, of some ornery bulls. He says a good rodeo clown has respect for the bulls and isn't afraid of getting hurt when he enters the arena. This attitude has become second nature to Rowdy. The one thing he never gets used to is the thrill of playing with danger at every performance.

The adrenalin, the excitement, yeah. The crowd sometimes will get you going. What...I don't know, I get off on the cowboys, you know, they, I really like it when they come up and thank me for getting them unhung or just taking them away from their hand and stepping in between the bull and the cowboy and taking them away a lot of times. Cowboys you know have to be about my best friends. And judging from Rowdy's expertise in the rodeo arena, cowboys think a lot of him too. Reporting for Grassroots Journal, I'm Shirley Skidmore. Rowdy hopes that if he keeps up the good work, in the next couple of years he'll be invited to the national rodeo clown competition and be well on his way to becoming a professional. Those bulls he likes to fight might look kind of dangerous to you and me, but they're not as wild as the animals we're going to see in our next story. It's is about a Spokane zoo that's well on its way to giving its inhabitants a lot of freedom. And right now it creates an atmosphere where you can literally walk in the wild. Cary Montgomery has the details.

You may not realize it, but there are wild animals living in the Spokane Valley. They make their home at the Walk in the Wild Zoo. Zoo director Doug Kemper's living the dream of many children. He also makes his home at the zoo. With 20 years of experience behind him, he came to the zoo about a year and a half ago. But it has been here much longer. The Walk in the Wild Zoo is about ten years old as a park site. There have been attempts over the last ten years to develop quite an interesting and very valuable site, 243 acres to the site. And those have met with varying degrees of success. But it really hasn't culminated into a bonafide or a working zoological park. There have been parts of an attraction and parts of animal exhibits that have been developed. Under his guidance, these parts have been pulled together and the zoo is beginning to transform. What we are attempting to do now, and expect within the next one to two years, is to have a zoo the size comparative to any zoo in the world and with quite an extensive

collection, and educational programming concerned with wildlife and exhibiting appropriate exhibits, naturalist exhibits and breeding populations. We will emphasize the animals of the Northwest, particularly those here in our region. But that doesn't preclude having exotic, so-called exotic animals. We can best understand North American heritage and wildlife by comparing it to the rest of the world's creatures. Along with the many plans for the future, the zoo site also includes a very special feature. We just discovered through some studies that our forest on this property, our Ponderosa pine forest, is probably as pristine a forest as can be found in the state of Washington. There's about 60 acres here out of an original 11 million acres in the lowlands of eastern Washington. And ours, as I say, is probably the closest to a natural forest that remains. So that makes our zoo's very unique, in that it would be the only one that I know of

in the world and certainly in this country that can qualify as a pristine area. After being involved with zoos for so many years, Doug has some insights on their purpose. I consider zoos as, the animals in the zoos, as ambassadors for their wild counterparts. Philosophically I don't like zoos and I don't like national parks. They really don't, and don't represent in most cases a complete ecosystem, but given the fact that our modern society is overpopulated with people, and we overuse or certainly use a goodly number of our resources, that zoos and national parks become extremely important as recreational outlets for people, and as I say, as places where people can learn about the wildlife and how we might better manage our relationship with the environment, with the plants and animals that is ours and nature's heritage. So in that sense zoos are very important. Doug began collecting and caring for wild animals when he was about six. His store of knowledge has

helped to make the zoo a comfortable home for its inhabitants. The zoological park provides really much more protection, medications, food, water, shelter, mates, that are harder to come by in the wild. Now of course the animals survive in the wild without the zoo. But they also survive just, just as well, and as far as creature comfort, comforts are better in the zoologic park than they do in the wild. They live longer and they tend to reproduce more. Doug is fond of all of his animals, but he does have a favorite. The most important animal in the zoo is the zoo visitor. That's why zoos exist, for people. The welfare and care of the animals is a given. So I guess as my favorite animal in the zoo sense has to be people and make sure that they not only enjoy but are gaining some beneficial knowledge by visiting the zoo. Doug is very optimistic that most of the new projects will be completed by next summer. Well, right now it's not too special compared to others but it will be. We'll repeat the

opportunity to be able to create a real public service, informational, zoological park for the people of the inland empire and the whole state of Washington here in Spokane. Thank you very much for coming to visit. Reporting for Grassroots Journal, I'm Cary Montgomery. The Walk in the Wild Zoo recently picked up some new sponsors, enabling them to add more exhibits, featuring bison, coyotes, and river otters. And as the number of exhibits continues to grow, so do the number of visitors. Another Northwest attraction is gaining in popularity every year, maybe because the main appeal is food. Walla Walla sweet onions. They're legendary in this area, and the city that's most noted for them tries to cash in on that fame in a number of ways. Robert Lowery tells us about one of them. These are Walla Walla sweet onions. These are also Walla Walla sweets, though in a slightly different form. And this is the sweet onion

cooking contest, just a part of the annual Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival. The two-day event features a wide variety of activities, all centered around the tasty herb. But why are people interested in paying homage to an onion? Sweet Onion Commission president Wes Colley explains. I try to attract people to come into Walla Walla. Think of us as the sweet onion city, and quit thinking of us as the place where the state prison's at, which we think's a negative, and... So we think it has a lot of public relations for the town of Walla Walla. I would say the key thing we've had so far is that more and more now, people are saying "yes, that's where you have the sweet onions" and that's what we're trying to get across. Back at the cooking contest, there are three categories for entries: salads, onion rings, and main dishes. A champion is selected in each category, and then an overall grand champion is chosen. Harmon Johnson was one of three judges responsible for picking those winners, and he talks about his criteria for

determining a champion onion dish. One of the principal things I was looking for in the judging was the originality of the dish, and the content of the dish, how much of the dish was made from the Walla Walla sweet onion. And the more original it was and the more use it made of the onion, the better I liked it. Rhonda Walters walked away with the grand championship. But she wasn't shy about revealing the contents of her winning concoction. I call it the onion pie. It's just a regular pie crust for the base and then it's got the eggs and sour cream and mushrooms and the onions. And Rhonda admits, she was surprised to be named as the contest's overall winner. Quite a bit. I would, didn't even think I'd do anything. I was hoping maybe second. Not all of the onions at the festival end up being cooked and eaten. These are entries in

the onion head contest. Here, boys and girls between 1 and 12 have the opportunity to show off their creativity at bringing the Walla Walla sweets to life. Even the king and queen of the festival are on hand, though they aren't part of the competition. We tried to get a few words with the winning entry, Hal E. Tosis, but apparently this onion head was more the strong, silent type. The onion slicing competition gives adults a chance to display their skill with a knife. Measurements are taken using a micrometer. One man went so far as to bring his own carving implements, but in the end, talent won out over utensils. Sharon Badget's winning slice measure just fourteen thousandths of inch, and let me tell you, that's thin. But these are just the preliminary activities leading up to the big event of the festival, the official taste test pitting the Walla Walla Sweet against the Vidalia, Georgia, peach of an onion to determine which is the sweetest. The Vidalia onion came out the winner when the contest was held in Georgia. But this time the Walla Walla

growers were determined to come out on top. Nine judges assembled to examine the onion's taste in four categories: First the raw taste test, then the onions in a Denver omelet, thirdly in a vegetarian sandwich, and finally in a dish known as Crab Victoria. The judges of course aren't aware of which onion is which during the test. But how do you taste test an onion? Judge Phyllis Dilts explains her method. I've been a perfume representative for some major cosmetic firms in past job experiences I've had. And when you are tasting wine or you are experiencing fragrances, such as perfumes, then you put them on the tip of your tongue, and you bring them across the taste buds into the back of the throat. And this is basically what I felt I'm doing with with the onion essence. You receive the essence across the taste buds, and this gives you a more true flavor. And after a thorough judging by the panel and a careful tabulation of the results, the winner of the official onion taste test is announced.

The total scores over all categories, and this is averaged out, Vidalia ... 200.8, and the Walla Walla 200.1, seven-tenths lower. But despite the overall totals, Judge Dilts still rates the Walla Walla sweet superior. I really think the test of a true onion is in the raw onion, because when you're cooking you use onion as a secondary flavor, not, not as you would salt or pepper or something like that, but I think that the RAW onion is more preferred as far as using it in hamburgers and just eating it in onion rings and things where the taste really comes across. So I still feel that the Walla Walla onion is superior. Even though the hometown onion came out officially second best, everyone on hand seemed to enjoy the festivities. And the organizers promise a bigger and even better Walla Walla Sweet Onion Festival next year. Reporting for Grassroots Journal, I'm Robert Lowery.

Organizers say there'll be a lot of changes at next year's festival. They want even more community events. So you might begin thinking about baking your own onion pie or building your own onion head for next year's competition. There's another builder that lives just north of Walla Walla, in Dayton. But instead of working with onions, he uses wood to create his own answer to Tonka trucks. Reporter Patty Welter shows us how Jack Dieringer's toy- making magic is restoring popularity to an old-fashioned pastime. All children know the story about a toy maker who so believed in the magic of his toys that his favorite creation, a small wooden puppet, became a real little boy. But in Dayton, there's a modern-day Geppetto who also has that belief in his work and magic in his hands, turning blocks of wood into everything from doll house furniture to semi trucks that delight youngsters of all ages. My name is Jack Dieringer, I live in Dayton, Washington, I'm a toy maker

for relaxation and as a hobby. Jack began working with wood at a young age when he used to make his own toys. When I was a child, if you had a toy, you usually made it out of a piece of cedar shingle. An arrow, for instance, or you could kind of whittle a piece of soft wood and make a propeller. For the nose of an airplane, you take a block of wood. There weren't really many, a lot of toys for sale at the time, that I can remember of. During the depression years, why, most neighbor kids didn't have anything to speak of, other than a red wagon. Jack's interest in making things carried into high school and through college, where he majored in industrial arts at Washington State University. When he got out of college, there was a job available at the Dayton post office, so he took it. But his knowledge of industrial arts and talent for working with his hands weren't wasted. Well, I think once you're interested in making something with your hands, and especially with wood, I don't think you ever lose that interest. In school we had projects to make. I've made

Philippine mahogany tables, end tables, furniture, chairs, inlaid designs on chairs in classes at school, and I still have one or two pieces of furniture from back in 1944, 45 when I made these in school, in college. You just never lose that interest. It's just getting down to something more practical that you can make and dispose of. Jack started making and designing toys so he'd have something to keep him busy when he retired and for relaxation after working all day. Since his retirement, he's been able to spend more time in his workshop with his toys, while keeping up with the many other things he's interested in. Jack has four grandchildren who are always eager for new toys, so he designs most of his toys with kids in mind: durable, sturdy, and detailed enough to capture a child's attention. You know, I'll take my wood burning set, and I'll burn lug nuts

on to the, around the axle. When I assemble it and put three coats of finish on this toy, well, it is quite attractive. The kids, when they see something in motion, such as the lug nuts or the tread on the tire, it's a lot more intriguing to them, more interesting. Their imagination goes wild. They can sit by the hour and play with these toys, if it's got motion to it, just by simply nudging it with their hand. He also makes what he call whirligigs. They're plain fun to make and they're plain fun to watch out in the breeze out in the backyard. And they're fun to give away, to give to friends. The first one I had given to me had been simply cut out and assembled, burnt, and given to me, and I think, I thought how nice, what a nice gift, but the only improvement I could see on it was sanding each one of these pieces so up close they really look like a piece of fine quality wood. The personal touches Jack has given to each whirligig are fascinating to see as they

turn and twist in the breeze. But Jack's favorite toy to make it is a semi truck, which is one of his newer creations. So far I think my favorite toy is the semi. They're fun to cut out, a little more complicated, time-consuming. And you really have a valuable piece of enjoyment in your hand. For Jack, one of the greatest benefits of making toys is to see the children playing with them. I had some friends come through here a while back, and a little child who was about a 5-year-old. He was really intrigued with all these toys I had on the shelf down here. I happened to have a couple duplicates of this one little horse trailer and cab, and I just handed it to him. He says... I told him, this is for you. They move, they live up in Clarkston, and he was quite happy, and I'm sure he's having fun with it yet. It isn't hard to see what it is that gives this modern-day Geppetto, Jack Dieringer, the ability to make his toys come to life. It's his interest and joy in living

and the gift to make people smile, laugh, and have fun with his handiwork. Reporting for Grassroots Journal, this is Patty Welter. Jack's latest project is making a replica of Fred Flintstone's car, and he hopes to crank out more of them once he can catch up on his whirligig orders. Now let's go to the Palouse Empire Fair in Colfax for a world championship race. It's a race that pits man and machine against man and machine, but the machine is not your normal racing vehicle. Laurie Dahl takes us to the scene of the action. The Indy 500 it isn't, but in the world of wheat fields and rolling hills, combine racing is the sport of kings. For four years, the Palouse Empire Fair has been the site of the World Championship Combine Races. A grandstand of local fans witnessed this year's main event, where man and massive machine combine skill with a little speed and a lot of accuracy. Race director Dick Gebhardt says the rules are simple, if you think driving a 12-ton two-story combine can be called

simple. He says all you have to do is just guide the John Deere, the International or the AC Gleaner past some very delicate flags and virtually impossible obstacles. There are seven gates in the course. The first two are slalom gates, more for speed and accuracy than anything. All of the gates are 6 inches wider than the header. The third gate is a simulated field stone, where we have a tire laying on the ground and they have to raise their header. The next station is a parking and backing station, where they come into a confined area six inches wider. They must touch the Center flag just for accuracy. And these flags are very sensitive. They touch them too hard, they'll fall over, and then they get 30 seconds penalty on every flag they knock over in the race. The sixth gate is the narrows, what we call the narrows. It's actually narrower than the header. And this simulates the kind of situation that they run into very often and as they enter into their fields. Many of the fence rows come up, and they were designed for the old combine that had smaller headers, shorter headers on them. And now with longer headers and bigger

machines, they have to come in and they have to put one end of their header in behind one of the poles and then level over, which moves the header over, in order to get through. It's really, really a complex driving situation. In fact I call it the epitome of combinedom. As far as I'm concerned, this is the highest class of driving in farming that there is. Twelve of the best combine drivers in the Inland Empire anxiously waited for their turn on the course. The grand prize included a trip to Reno, but it was the chance to show off hard-learned harvesting skills that brought the men to the race. When the dust settled, Mark Hinrichs emerged as the world champion combine racer, with an official time of five minutes and 21 seconds. But before the gates closed and the machines were driven home, Mark and Dick described the real thrill of combine racing. The thrill of combine racing, that's really a stumper there. Just getting on the machine and taking it through an obstacle course, something you don't normally do. Although, you actually do when you're just on the farm, around buildings, things like that. Combines are getting close to things, and you have to watch it. It's kind of, it's enjoyable to get together with

people from the community that you haven't seen in a long time. That's about the only chance I ever get is at a combine race. So that's about what I get out of it. Oh, I think the thrill is... Of course, these farmers do this every day for a month or two, long days, you know, and the thrill is getting out and seeing how they do it against somebody else. So it's really a competitive spirit that we're talking about. But I think the thrill for the audience and the spectators and the rest of us is to see these humongous big machines being manipulated into microhandling if you want to call it that. It's a different kind of a phrase. But I mean they're talking about touching a flag with this great big, 22-foot-wide header, 26-foot-long machine, almost two stories tall, touching a flag and coming in within 6 inches of everything. And that I think is the real excitement of it. Reporting for Grassroots Journal, I'm Laurie Dahl. Well, that's our show for tonight. We hope you enjoyed it. And please join us again next week for more stories about life in the US.