By Georgia Osten
The 2nd Annual Texas Frog Festival, only two weekends after the 30th Annual Texas Crab Festival. Listen carefully…Whew! That’s a sigh of relief. Our Festival season is finally over, at least for these two “retirees.” I spent the weekend riding around with my favorite site coordinator who was on his radio constantly along with 28 other volunteers. We couldn’t have pulled this off without a hard-working group of young men – Jacob’s Ladder. We worked right alongside the Jacob’s Ladder men, solving issues with lighting, generators, porta-potties, fallen tents and fallen cases of sodas. I learned how to raise and lower 20-30 foot light rigs, but I also got to run to the Dollar Store for more toilet paper or The Big Store for motor oil.

I got to play in the hay, spreading it over the soppy areas where necessary. I ferried people from the parking lots to the entrance tent on many occasions in our own golf cart, so encrusted in mud and piled with hay. Jay Weeks, get ready to service this cart, she was “rode hard and put away wet.”

My most tedious duty was directing traffic away from a too full parking lot to another parking lot a block down the road. Of course, no one heeded my waving flashlight, so they would have to pull up to my warning cones and I would personally explain the situation to them. A couple of trucks refused to talk to me and just ran over my cones to get into my parking lot anyway.

Sunday morning’s rainstorm brought on new challenges, but we weathered them quite well. I pulled out my black and white polka dotted rain boots, the ones I hadn’t worn since the rainy Crab Festival of 2014, and my yellow slicker – always the fashion statement. Happy to have that slicker later on in the evening when it got a bit chilly. Late in the evenings was the best when everyone was busy listening to the music and there weren’t a lot of emergencies.

Cory Morrow and Stoney LaRue on Saturday night and of course, Bag of Donuts on Sunday night. What a treat!

Next year, I hope they let me drive the fork lift, or spread dirt with the air-conditioned Kubota – this may be a whole new career opportunity for me.

(This article published 5/26/2015)

GO’s Sand Bucket is only one beach bum’s journal of life at the beach, probably something each of you can relate to. Please feel free to email me with your thoughts, visions and/or feelings of just exactly what the beach means to you.

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