A little rain, or even a lot of rain, wasn’t about to faze Gordon Cook.
The 80-year-old member of Onion Lake Cree Nation stuck to his grandstand seat during heavy rain and occasional sunny periods Sunday, still early in the five-day Onion Lake Sports Days program.
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“The sun comes up for a while, and then the showers come hard,” said Cook, sporting denim attire in keeping with the western-themed occasion.
“Oh yeah, I’m here every day. There’s lots of people from all over the place. With this grandstand here, you don’t really get wet.”
Albeit a smaller venue, Onion Lake’s Heritage Park grandstand is modelled after the Calgary Stampede grandstand design, with back access to the concession booths.
“It’s a pretty nice setup,” said Cook, who has been attending rodeos and the like since he was a child, spanning 75 years. “Sitting out in the rain, you’re still under cover.”
Back in the day, he was in the thick of the action at home in Onion Lake.
“I used to have a cross-country horse, and it was good for six years or so,” he said. “Then, somebody was cutting the wire
on fences, and I lost him, or maybe he was stolen. I couldn’t find him.
“For about six years, he won first place.
It used to be (a prize of) $1,000 a race.”
Cook still has fond memories of that championship horse, and he also shares stories with his grandchildren about the horse-and-buggy days from his childhood.
As a spectator this year, he was disappointed that Sunday’s weather postponed one of the cross-country races, but he was happy to hear that it had been rescheduled for Monday.
Organizers worked around the weather all weekend, and competitors persevered through muddy track conditions. Saturday’s heavy rain wiped out the CPCA chuckwagon races that night, but they were in the lineup for Sunday through Wednesday, July 1.
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