Whoop-Up Days: Making memories

A view of Whoop-Up Days in Lethbridge from decades ago.

Source: https://globalnews.ca/news/5802161/history-of-lethbridges-whoop-up-days/

(May be subject to copyright)

It was full of thrills, spills and excitement. A chance to get away from the farm, and have a great time.

When I was a kid, one of the highlights of the summer was going to Whoop-Up Days in Lethbridge in mid-August.

Lethbridge is gearing up for the latest edition of the big show, and it reminds me of summers with my friends, my family, seeing performers, going on rides, playing midway games and, heck, even working for Whoop-Up Days one summer.

The parade
As long as I could remember, we went to Lethbridge every year for the Whoop-Up Days parade. I am not sure what the actual route through the city was, but we always watched from the same spot. We would park at the Simpson Sears, or Centre Village Mall in North Lethbridge, and sit on a street corner on 13th Street, usually by the Bill Kergan Centre.

The highlight for me was trying to catch candy, which I did with varying levels of success.

However, as I got older, I paid more attention to the entries. The one that really stands out was an old school bus that carried veterans of the First World War. As the years went on, there were fewer and fewer veterans until it just disappeared. Now, there isn’t a single live veteran of the First World War on the planet.

It was also cool when I actually knew people in the parade. Back then, there weren’t a lot of them, but I was always excited to see someone I knew. The best example was my good friend David Perlich, riding with his parents and two sisters on their horses in matching outfits. Dave always waved to me, and that was so cool.

The rides
Whoop-Up Days was held at the Lethbridge Exhibition Grounds. It always seemed kind of magical to me especially at night when the rides on the midway lit up.

Rides such as the “Octopus”; “Zipper”; “Round-Up”; “Ferris Wheel”; “Tilt-A-Whirl”; and others, as well as the roller coaster, were all covered in lights that just illuminated the night sky.

My Mom always discouraged me for going on any rides that were at all scary or just pretty much left the ground. That meant I would go on this one with plastic motorcycle looking cars that went in a circle slowly; this one that simulated the inside of a rocket ship that just rotated slightly; and the carousel where I often rode a horse or a zebra. She wouldn’t even let me ride the bumper cars. Not even when I was taller than the line that illustrated the minimum height to go on them.

You see, when my Mom was a little girl in Germany, she went on the ferris wheel and got motion sick. She told me that story so often it made me scared of any ride that moved. More than 30 years later, I went on all those rides with my spouse at Whoop-Up Days and had a blast.

The games
Another big part of Whoop-Up Days for me was the games, and the chance to win prizes. The game I loved most was shooting a basketball. One time, I just kept making shots, spending all my money, in an effort to win one of the huge stuffed animals hanging from the ceiling of the booth. However, that only got me as far as a stuffed animal that wasn’t as big as those.

That same year, I was with my second cousin, Karen Hohensee who was visiting from Germany. The first time I made a shot, the prize I won, because I didn’t choose to continue shooting, was a pink, plastic pig that was a bank. There was no actual way to get out any money you put in, aside from cutting a hole in it. Yet, Karen just loved the pig, so I won her one, and she cuddled it like a teddy bear.

Another year, one of the prizes I coveted was a Houston Astros batting helmet. To win this prize, you had to knock over these two obviously weighted bottles with this weird feeling baseball from quite a ways back. You had to throw under hand too. It was a lot harder than it sounds. I couldn’t do it, either time I tried. Mom gave it a try and won. I still remember the guy running the booth just shaking his head as he set the bottles back up.

Then he gave her the prize batting helmet – but it was the Cincinnati Reds not the Astros. I was disappointed for a minute, but came to like that Reds helmet. Mom even wore it on the grounds for a minute or two as we walked around.

The prizes were always intriguing, and a little bit weird and ragged. One of the coolest was the pop bottle that had its neck stretched and twisted four or five inches, with coloured liquid inside. I looked at those for years, and finally won one on this ring toss game. I got it home and, maybe a couple weeks later, promptly broke it.

There were a lot of posters of all kinds, records of unknown artists, hats advertising companies I had never heard of, heavy metal shirts, and these mirror tiles that had heavy metal band logos on them. It turned out, because the Midway was from the States, the unknown logos were actually just from American companies.

Winning prizes was the end game, but I myself wanted to win them. Sometimes my Mom got carried away with the winning part, so she had my Dad compete for me.

One time, there was this game where you shot water from a gun into the open mouth of an animal like a gorilla or monkey. It was a race and I remember cheering for my Dad, but kind of wishing I was there instead.

Another time, we were playing skeet ball where you roll balls up this ramp and into concentric circles with increasing point values as the circles got smaller. One year Dad did really well. The next year, he had totally forgotten the last time he played and threw the balls under hand instead of rolling them. He had to be corrected by the carnie. I always liked that game, and in that case played it alongside my Dad.

The food
The aromas of the fair grounds was another big part of Whoop-Up Days. Walking around, you were just surrounded by the smells of onions, fries, meat sizzling, fries cooking, and so much more. We didn’t eat a lot of meals on the Midway, but there were certain things I liked there.

There was ice cream on a stick dipped in chocolate covered in peanuts; this big barrel of root beer that quenched the thirst; and tacos like none I had ever tasted before.

Going inside
Another part of Whoop-Up Days was what was going on in the Exhibition Pavilion. In the winter the pavilion served as the site of Ag-Expo, full of farm equipment, displays and more.

For Whoop-Up Days, it was more varied. They had entertainment, such as “Catch a Rising Star” which was a combination talent show and battle of the bands. There were the Gauchos, personal favourites of mine, who danced and used these bolos to entertain. And there was all kinds of dance and more.

At each end of the pavilion, there was a kind of concession or cafeteria. Right in the front, at the east end, it was an older one that had like pop, popcorn, chips and stuff like hot dogs. It was older, with the traditional Coca-Cola sign displayed. After you went through the pavilion, at the end was an actual cafeteria with a kitchen that was much more brightly lit.

That’s where we would eat. I really liked the fries and gravy.

Show time
At the far end of the Exhibition Grounds was the Grandstand. It overlooked a horse track, and a stage. I never once saw rodeo or chuckwagon races in the Grandstand. The closest I came was the chariot races, which were kind of cool.

We did see a lot of concerts over the years, of artists I have come to appreciate more and more as I have gotten older. The big one for me was Rick Nelson, who was a bigger deal than I thought at the time. He had a lot of top 10 hits and was good. The other one was Tommy Hunter, who was familiar to anyone of that era, because he had a TV show Friday nights on CBC, Channel 9 on the peasant vision dial. A frequent guest on “The Tommy Hunter Show” was fiddle player Al Cherney, and we saw him play at the Grandstand a couple times too.

A family affair
One of the coolest parts of Whoop-Up days had nothing to do with what was on the grounds. Instead, it was going with my cousins. Early in my childhood, I went with my cousins Nina and Carl, who lived in Lethbridge. They were both older than me, so pretty soon they went their own way, preferring to hang out with their friends.

That was okay, because not too soon after, my cousins from Brooks started coming out to the farm to stay for a week or two every summer. In particular, my cousins Fred, Henry and Chris came out just in time for Whoop-Up Days, and it was always fun.

I just remember having a good time with those guys.

Midnight Madness
Something my cousin Carl talked about going to was Midnight Madness. It was the Friday night of Whoop-Up Days and meant you could buy a pass and go on the rides all through the night until like 6 a.m.

I wasn’t able to go until the summer after Grade 11 for a number of reasons. My parents obviously would never go with me, and there was no one else to go with, even if my parents had allowed me to go, which was doubtful.

Then, I met Randy Skiba, and we went to Midnight Madness together. There was an added twist. We each liked a different girl, and heard rumours they would be at Midnight Madness. In the end, the girl I liked wasn’t but we did see the girl he liked.

The next year, I went again, and suffered a crushing defeat. I had dated this girl a couple times, and even took her to my grad. Things really didn’t click, but I was too stupid to stop.

I called her to see if she wanted to go to Midnight Madness. She passed. Then, when I was walking the grounds at Midnight Madness, I saw her get on a ride. I thought I was just seeing things, but then I saw her again. It was crushing, at least for the moment.

Working for the week
I also got a job that summer of 1987 working at the Exhibition Grounds, but that has to be for another time because I experienced a lot in a short week.

Parting thoughts
Whoop-Up Days was one of the things I looked forward to every year growing up. It was a chance to get off the farm, hang out with my cousins, and later friends. It was also an opportunity to play games, see some shows, eat some carnival food, go on some tame rides, and just see and do things I never did any other time of year.

This year, I heard they did not charge admission to Whoop-Up Days.

I thought that was awesome, because everyone should get the chance to make the kind of memories I did.