A sample of the artistic carvings one can order at Boulder Designs.
Blaine told us the work is guaranteed. If erosion or sunlight or any number of things mar the art, Boulder Designs will send someone out to redo it. I asked Blaine if I could have my email address put below my name on a headstone so that I can continue my job from downstairs. The answer was yes.
Blaine Sanders explains the guarantee offered by Boulder Designs.
When we came to the next vendor, I could not help asking Lance Hawley, our sports reporter, who accompanied me, which of these dinosaurs at Papa's Toy Hut he would most compare himself to. And of course this paragon of family friendliness, this hale fellow well met chooses the veggie-eating, long-necked, portly Brontosaurus (second from left in the picture below) before I could. But I said I was a Brontosaurus, too. If any humans find me, I want my head and neck petted.
Brontosauri are the big lizards who end up being the good buddy to the time-travelers caught in the Jurassic Period while the Tyrannosaurus Rexes stalk the mud in futile rage about their tiny arms. Hugh Yarborough and Linda Foster are in charge of the business. They hail from Marshall, Texas and this is their second year at the festival, because last year was a great success. They invested in the dinosaur inventory because kids just love them.
Then we spoke to the incredibly poised Felicity McKenzie, winner of Young Miss Watermelon (9-12 years) about her experience in the pageant this past Tuesday night. "The other girls, they were really pretty and really nice," McKenzie said. But when I asked her for tips I can use for applying my mascara, she chose to keep those to herself.
Young Miss Watermelon Felicity McKenzie had a terrific time participating in the Watermelon Festival pageant Tuesday night, would not share mascara secrets with reporter.
After that, Lance and I went by a display of two water-based air cleaners. Both of us intrigued by gadgets of all sorts, we could not help but stop. Washed Clean Air Solutions sells a system that cleans the air using the properties of water so there are no filters to have to buy and change. The display featured a spinning wheel you can use to find out if you get a free room-sized unit and a visit from the company to have a larger unit demonstrated.
During our talk, a nice breeze came through and tumped the spinning wheel over, but Caesar, the young salesman, was unruffled, explaining to us that all an owner of a system had to do was empty dirty water. There was a choice of several scents the machine could impart to a house, too. I took his card. My apartment, like me, smells like old books and dish soap.
Caesar, the unperturbable salesman of water-based air cleaners, explained to us how the technology works, even after a stiff wind came through and knocked over a spinning wheel.
Next, we found ourselves in the Coliseum, amid the many vendors there. Our eyes were caught by the display of guitars, ukuleles and banjos made from broomsticks, humidors, cans and other exotic materials. We had to stop and marvel.
It turned out that Twister Strums is owned and run by a couple who has been in the business of constructing guitars since 2018. Larry Allen handed his wife Sharon a favorite humidor guitar and she played a short classical piece that truly sounded like a sun-glazed cloud seen between snow-capped peaks. It made us thirsty.
Sharon Allen plays a classical piece on one the Twister Strums' humidor guitars.
By this point, the Coliseum stage began to fill with city leaders, Chamber of Commerce executives, pageant winners and volunteers. The ribbon was going to be cut to officially start the 47th Watermelon Festival and history could not wait.