Part 3/San Fermin/Running of the Bulls

I have been reminiscing about my 1995 experience in Pamplona, Spain when I attended the Festival of San Fermin and saw the Running of the Bulls.  Those posts can be reviewed by clicking on the highlighted words.

This walk down memory lane began when I was sifting through a box identifying "throw away items" from "items to save". If you know me at all, you know which pile is higher.

Coming across a favorite cartoon, I realized the timing was perfect. July 6-July 14=the Festival of San Fermin.  I went in search of a photo album and voila, the memories came flooding back.  This 1995 adventure was truly an amazing experience.



Even though this cartoon was in the first post of the series, I am inserting it again.

Unfortunately, I did not finish this three part series in a timely fashion. The Festival of San Fermin finished on July 14. I have not located a few of photos I wanted to share. Then, an idea popped into my head. There is always next year.  So, I am ending this series for now, but I will add a little more next year.  Just so you know what is coming:

 We were up close to the arrival of a matador. No rock star, political fiqure, or other diva could have aroused such adoration. It was another cultural phenomena.

Fireworks... I have never seen any better.

Negatives... There were a few.

Until the Festival of San Fermin of 2017. Hasta la Vista.

Running of the Bulls

     Last week I shared a little about my experience at the annual festival of San Fermin.  If you missed it, click on San Fermin, to read the first of this three part series.

     Each morning of the Festival of San Fermin, six bulls and six or seven steers are herded from their holding corrals to the bullring where they will be part of an afternoon and evening bullfight.  It takes approximately three minutes for the bulls to make their way from one place to the other. Of course, this just happens to be down several streets that run through old Pamplona.  The release is at 8:00 a.m. but spectators need to be situated long before the clock marks that hour.

     We were advised to watch the spectacle from inside the bullring. This was a good choice.  The streets are lined with barricades in fact, they are double barricaded. Mostly double split-rail fences. Obtaining a spot to view so close to the street was not for us.  I could just feel the crowd crushing me into those wooden fences. The mass of people was overwhelming. I read that attendance is usually 1,000,000 over the week long celebration.

    Of course, observing from a balcony would be a fabulous spot. We, however, didn't have that option. It was fun after the running to go into the photo shops to see the myriad of photos taken of runners and bulls which had been  shot from the perspective

of those balconies.  This picture is copied from the July 8, 1995 newspaper.



Meanwhile, my friends and I were in the bullring/stadium waiting for the bulls and steers to arrive.  Entertainment was provided before and after the bulls arrival. At least, that is what it was called.

Entertainment before the bulls run through the opening on the right of the picture.

The bulls have arrived.

     This clipping from the newspaper shows several things.  One can see the other end of the opening that is just going into the bullring/stadium.
     It also shows the lack of cultural knowledge so common to young foreign visitors to the festival.  The caption points out two grave mistakes by this obviously foreign runner.  First, he is touching the back of the bull and secondly he is running with a backpack.

      After the bulls arrive at the bullring, they are put away into corrals out of sight.  The area is then filled with runners and the steers. The participants have rolled newspapers to help get the attention of the steers. Everyone seems to be having great fun running and dodging these beasts. However, one spectacle we saw is somewhat related to this photo.  We saw a young man (undoubtedly foreign- maybe the same one) attempt to bulldog a steer. Once he had his arms around those horns, the other participants turned on him with their rolled  newspapers and started assaulting him. It seems that the bull and steers are not to be touched.

      There are numerous dangers involved in the Festival of San Fermin. The bulls themselves are only one.  Cultural traditions must be followed.

      I have a few more pictures of this amazing event in my next post (part 3) and then back to Doc Grisso and that trip to West Virginia.




    

San Fermin

     Recently, I was sorting boxes of old papers, letters, photos, etc.  This is a job that will never be done, but let's not even go into that.
Sometimes these sessions unearth interesting topics to share.  Even though there is more on Doc Grisso to discuss and the discoveries of the genealogy road trip to West Virginia needs to be told, this cartoon is a timely distraction. 

July 6-July 14 is the Festival of San Fermin

also known as

The Running of the Bulls

So.....?

     Coming across this cartoon was a fabulous memory jogger of an extraordinary adventure I had in 1995.  Genealogists are encouraged to write about themselves as well as their ancestors. SO, this is a surprise piece of information for my grandchildren and their descendants. Yes, Grandma went to Pamplona, Navarre, Spain to celebrate with the locals and observe the famous Running of the Bulls.

     Here I am pointing to the flyer advertising the excursion to Pamplona. Notice the shirt on the board. Of course, I have one but it is probably in a box in the shed waiting to be rediscovered.

     Along with a few friends, I attended a school in Madrid for several weeks in July of 1995. The excursion to Pamplona was an added bonus. I have found some old photos and would like to share a few of my impressions from the festival.

     The Festival of San Fermin has been around since the Middle Ages. It is a week long fiesta to honor Navarre's  Patron Saint, San Fermin.  It is said that Ernest Hemingway introduced the world to the Running of the Bulls with his novel The Sun Also Rises.  Even though a large statue of Hemingway stands in the main plaza of the Plaza de Toros, it is a little controversial as to whether bringing all this attention to an originally religious and traditional family event was a positive or not.

     Although overrun with foreigners (including me), I witnessed a family and community celebration.  Everywhere the Pamplonians  were dressed in white shirts, white pants, red sashes, and  red neck-scarves, the traditional garb.  I saw policemen wearing red scarves even though they were in uniform. From the tiniest of babies to the oldest family members, sometimes in wheel chairs, red scarves adorned everyone's necks.  I even saw cute little dogs with bandanas tied around their necks.

  

People everywhere

Cute little dog with neck scarf.



Garden Walk

     Well, it that time of year again. The time when I like to show off a little of my other passion, gardening.  Even though I am not completely finished with the intriguing story of Doc Grisso of Seminole, Oklahoma nor have I started telling of our genealogical adventure to Union, West Virginia, I will get back to the ancestors soon.
    You may remember that I asked the question in Should I Go? about a little genealogy side trip the third week of June.  Indeed we did go, but not with the anticipated results. 
     I know you are just on the edge of your seat.
     But first, may I present my garden. (hum music from Beauty and the Beast.)

Probably my favorite garden photo

iv

Old farming seeder makes a great planting bed.

Wild but beautiful. Love those coneflowers.

Hydranga with a couple of phlox



We also have live butterfies, but none this big.



Best way to dispose of old grills

 


River View

July 4, 2016

Happy 4th of July


I thought it might be fun to reminisce about past Independence Day celebrations. I could only think of a few and they mostly had to do with weather. Really, really hot weather or cold unseasonably cold weather.

We did watch the fireworks in the nation's capital once or twice. It is a little hard to top that venue.

Then, I remembered the many years of my children's youth when we watched from the ground as the kid's dad flew over various celebrations in a National Guard helicopter.

We were and still are proud to be Americans.

Doc Grisso "Rancher and Conservationist"

This post continues the story of Doc Grisso as found in The Grisso Family book.

     Doc Grisso was  very interested in effective land conservation.  The land in the Seminole area had been terribly abused and misused.  Doc was instrumental in repairing some of the damage.

     Cotton, being the largest money crop, had been planted on the same land for so long that the soil just would not grow anything.  The discovery of oil had caused much land to be ruined by the drilling operations, and they had done nothing to build the land back up.  The result was massive erosion.

     Another damaging factor to the soils in the area was the startling ignorance of the farmers in regard to the use of land.  They grew the same crops on the same plot of land year after year; they failed to fertilize their land, and they knew little about the value of terracing the land to prevent erosion

     Doc along with several other concerned citizens, became alarmed about the situation..  It is interesting to note that he himself had to learn about better farming methods before he really did anything to help his community.

     Doc Grisso had a friend, Chester Ellis, who was responsible for instructing Doc about the newer and more modern methods of farming.  Mr. Ellis was president of the First State Bank in Seminole.  He was a farmer long before he came a banker, back in Tennessee where the land is precious indeed.  These mountain people had out of necessity learned how to preserve the land, which was carved out of the Tennessee mountains.  Mr. Ellis knew all these modern methods and pushed Doc in the right direction in regard to improving the lands in Seminole.

     With the coaching of Mr. Ellis the farm of Doc Grisso became a model for conservationists.  He had adapted terrace as a means of preventing erosion and was anxious for others to learn and use the method. He  felt so strongly that he backed several contests to see who could terrace the land the best way.  In March of 1930 it was announced at a farmers banquet in Wewoka at the Aldridge Hotel that he would offer $1000.00 in cash prizes in March of the next year to the persons who would terrace their lands most successfully.  There would be five prizes; first prize, $400.00; second prize, $250.00; third prize, $150.00; fourth prize, $125.00;
fifth prize, $75.00.  All of this money was to be paid in gold, and in those days those sums were considerable amounts of money.

     This was only one of many contests that Doc backed in the following years.  His interest in improved farms never waned.  He was constantly reading about ways to build up and conserve the land.  He was chairman of the Conservation District group for more than thirty years, and during the early thirties Seminole County had more miles of terracing than any other county in Oklahoma.

     Doc bought considerable land to improve so he could demonstrate what proper handling of the soil means in the production of field crops and pastures.  At his death he owned approximately 7,000 acres of land, into which large amounts of time, money, and effort had been poured.  As an Ada Newspaper put it, "If one wants to see some of the results of his work, he ought to compare the fields that Dr. Grisso rebuilt with the production on neighboring fields which did not get the treatment.  His ranch land was turned into "excellent pasture of both tame and native grasses".

Doc Grisso "Road Builder"

As with the post called Doc Grisso "Land Dealer", I am quoting directly from The Grisso Family book.

     During the "oil-boom" era of Seminole, 1926-1930, money kept pouring in from the oil wells and Seminole mushroomed to a town of some size.  Oil camps were established in Earlsboro, Cromwell, Bowlegs, and all around Seminole;  some estimates put the number of people in the Seminole area at around 50,000.

     It does not take a lot of imagination to see what sort of disastrous results occurred to the old dirt roads in the area when such a large influx of people and vehicles came to Seminole.  Naturally most all of the citizens were concerned, but Doc Grisso was determined to do something to improve the conditions of the roads.  At the time he was the chairman of the Chamber of Commerce Committee on Roads, and spent a considerable amount of time and money making trips to urge the State Highway Commission to help Seminole make improvements on the roads.

     On one such trip in November of 1927, he invited the highway commissioners to come to Seminole and have dinner as guests of the Chamber of Commerce.  It seems that there were misgiving about going to this rowdy boom-town, and Doc retorted with, "Hell, I eat in Seminole".  Finally they agreed to come, and on their trip from Oklahoma City it began to rain pitchforks at just the right time of day to catch the commissioners on just the right spot on the highway.  Congressman Carter said in his speech that he had never made a promise in his twenty years in politics, but that he was going to make one right now.  He said he was going to vote a billion dollars to repair a one half mile strip he knew between here and Seminole.

     During these years Doc prodded and pushed and politicked for the improvement of roads in Seminole County.  He had considerable influence in his county and was gaining a statewide reputation for being a booster of better roads.

     His efforts eventually provided State Highway 270 eligible for state and federal funds and the building of a new  highway from Ada to Seminole to Prague,  State highway 48, presently known as State Highway 99.

     Doc worked continually for building roads.  He spent a great amount of money promoting roads; some estimate the amount to be in excess of $100,000, and all of it came from his own pocket.  As Mrs. Grisso says, "No one will ever know just how much he really did spend on roads."

     In addition to being chairman of the State Highway 270 and State Highway 48 committees, Governor E.W. Marland appointed him to the Oklahoma High Commission in 1935 as chairman of the Commission.  This appointment was perhaps the most significant honor ever given to a man from Seminole at that time.  He had a philosophy by which he was guided on the commission, and that was to "build the roads where the traffic needed them" and to make roads" go someplace".  His impact on the highway was of great importance, and the State of Oklahoma owes to this man a debt of gratitude.

     The next post about Doc Grisso will be his role as a rancher and conservationist.