My nephew Michael and his wife Amy must be Real Texans….even though they live in Austin. He is a musician, professional Cellist, and an orchestra teacher in the Austin ISD. He is also an avid fisherman. Amy is a grants specialist with an agency of the State of Texas. They live in the Hays City area in the greater Austin metro area. I describe all this just so you know they are ‘above average individuals’ even if they are down to earth with their ‘event planning’.
They throw some really great parties in South Austin for their own birthdays, their kids birthdays, and ‘just because’ events. It was Michael’s birthday celebration this time around.
One of the events they held at their last party was the famous ‘chicken shit bingo’. They used their own chickens they raise in the backyard. They are Urban Farmers in South Austin and grow lots of veggies for themselves, friends, and relatives.
Lots of folks in the city have never heard of this famous sporting event. However, out here in Real Texas, Chicken Shit Bingo is a staple of chili cookoffs, catholic building fund raisers, and grade school PTA halloween….er….. fall festivals. We grew up with the game.
I mean we literally think nothing of wagering money and sitting around in anticipation of watching a chicken defecate on our square. It’s not exactly that far removed from watching the Russian roulette scenes from the Deer Hunter. It gets pretty intense waitin’ on those chickens to relieve themselves in just the right spot. Lots of whooping and hollering when the deed gets done, especially on the square of someone who is prone to such outbursts.
The contests held at chili cookoffs, barbecue cookoffs, and Wild Game Suppers are louder and more animated than just a regular event at the local church bazaar. ‘Course, liberal doses of Lone Star and Shiner usually help some in that regard.
Sometimes there is just a lot of intense staring going on, sometimes there is shouting and hollering at some poor chicken walking around in the cage with a floor made out of numbers. The chickens don’t seem to mind or even pay a whole lot of attention to the antics going on outside the cage. They also do not play favorites in their role as primary game participants. They just go when they go, wherever they happen to be.
As a certified, card carrying Real Texan, I love events like this. And these events are good for children also. It means they are gettin’ raised right!. The city kids at the party were urging their favorite chickens to do what comes naturally, they were throwing hay at each other, and playin’ in the dirt in the raised garden beds next to the onion sets and spinach.
The children at the events in Austin are getting a great education and math lesson by attending this simple bingo contest. In my Real Texas biased opinion, attendance at events like this should be mandatory for the “highly urbanized” school children of the Great State.
It’s a Real Texas Tradition, just catching on in Austin. But it was in SOUTH Austin.
I’m David out in Real Texas
….Sorta close to South Austin
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That would be Hays County there, RT. Its interesting how the whole Urban chicken thing has taken off. Of course the HOA nazis don’t like that or solar clothes dryers either.
Always good to hear from a treehugger. Not too many mesquite tree huggers out here. Yeah, I laugh at my brother and his HOA and their restrictions. The area the nephew lives in is kinda rural for Austin area. btw, there is a Hays City….http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hays,_Texas
Happily and easily corrected. Hays City it is, then. There’s plenty to learn about the small settlements of central Texas, but I’m more busy with the plants (4 year resident).The TH is more about trees than env’l policy, btw, though I’ve had my share of mesquite hugging growing up in the North Concho watershed since Dad didn’t want us messing with his pet pecan trees. At least you’re blessed with an unlimited supply of good cooking wood.
Speaking of plants, is the small nursery still there in Mertzon? I used to always try to stop in and buy her cactus plants because I knew she grew them herself. Interesting lady…grew up in Terlingua and her Dad worked for the mining company.
No problemo TH. I’m not in the corrections industry. I spent 27 years printing my mistakes for everyone to see. I would not have known about Hays the city myself if Michael and Amy did not live there. And I do have an unlimited supply of pecan wood (but cook with mesquite). It would take two of us to hug my pecan trees….not kidding! We live just outside of Mertzon on the Spring Creek. The lady who operates the nursery – Made in the Shade – is a younger lady named Tandy. Not sure if she is the same one you know. Where on the North Concho watershed? I know old editors all over the state.
I think that might be a carry-over from Cow Patty Bingo. Our FFA/4-H Booster Club has been playing that on fund-raising night for as long as I can remember. Guess CS Bingo is what you play at back yard parties when you don’t have a school parking lot large enough to accommodate a thousand pound yearling primed with a half-sack of corn, oats, and molasses, and plenty of room for spectators to scramble back ten paces when the big event happens.
The “email this” button is not working.
There is no “print” button.
I spent the first 18 years of my life in Sterling City. I even worked for Jack Douthit at the SC News-Record for a while as a printer’s devil. The paper was printed old style with a linotype, flat bed type of press, and we folded papers by hand on Thursday afternoons after school. I worked my way up to 0.60 an hour before seeking greener pastures doing roofing when I was 15. We played Mertzon every year in non-conference basketball games and also some jr high football games I think. Some of those Class B HS gymnasiums of that time were sure primitive compared to today. Blackwell was the worst, but Wall’s wasn’t much better.
BTW, thanks for link to bottlecaps. I used to read his AAS blog.
NIce! Chicken Shit Bingo was on the Bucket List in Texas Monthly. Hmmm, we thought….chickens – check, plywood – check, marker – check, party – check. What the heck. It is good for the kids and adults.
The kids are out front watching Michael clean fish from his suicide mission to the coast last night. The first one got a, “bye-bye fish”, before the electric knife kicked on.
Thanks for coming to celebrate with us and hope to see y’all at Easter!
This is the first time I’ve heard of CS Bingo. I can just imagine the fun it must make!