Big Doings on Friday
27/01/14 04:56
It seems like Friday is going to be a big day. It is the last day of January, which means payday for some folks. Our church will be serving the meal at the local rescue mission that evening and the arrival of pay checks for the workers, unemployment benefits for those who haven’t found work and assistance for those who receive food support all have an effect on how many people take in the meal at the mission. It is hard to predict how many people will show up for the meal, but I’m confident that the folks from our church who are preparing the meal will have enough food for all to eat their fill. It is an important outreach. It is a good thing to feed hungry people. But it is also a reminder that there are large inequities in our community and in our world. The contrast between the working poor and those who have more than enough is stark.
At $7.25 and hour, a minimum wage earner has to work more than half an hour for a gallon of milk. A meal for two at a mid-range restaurant in our city is nearly a day’s wages for a minimum wage worker. A modest three-bedroom apartment in our city costs more than half a full-time salary at minimum wage. That makes the oil fields in North Dakota seem attractive on the surface. Fast food restaurants are paying $15 an hour up there. But there is no housing available and what might be found isn’t affordable at fast food pay rates.
But the mission meal is only one of the things that is occurring on Friday. Friday is the opening of the big annual Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo. We really do up our mid-winter farm and ranch show here with the civic center crammed full of displays and vendors, the fairgrounds hopping with all kinds of activities and, of course the rodeos. I think there are at least 7 PRCA rodeos plus the Xtreme Bulls Tour, team roping events, and more. There are special shows for all of the major breeds of cattle, horse shows and sales, art displays, concerts, trick riding shows, sheep dog trials and the west’s best auctioneer contest.
Big doings in the Black Hills all next week with the stock show in town. Time to polish the boots and get out the hat and head down to the civic center. You can sit in a pickup that is so fancy you’d never consider buying it, ogle the tractors that cost more than your house, take a look at a saddle that is worth more than horses sold for at the fair when you were a kid and watch demonstrations of ranch equipment that you didn’t know existed.
We’ll be so busy with the stock show that we might not notice that Friday is also the lunar new year, sometimes called Chinese New Year. It isn’t one of the big festivals around here, but it is usually noted with celebrations and a parade in Deadwood. The Chinese New Year is traditionally a time to honor ancestors and to get folks together for dancing, parades, and other events. Because the Chinese calendar doesn’t traditionally use continuously numbered years, there is some controversy about what year is coming. Those outside of China often number from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. That date is somewhat in question as well, so I don’t know if this new year is 4711, 4712, or 4651. It isn’t a big area of debate in our town anyway. There is more agreement that this week marks the last week of the year of the snake and Friday begins the year of the horse.
The beginning of the year of the horse seems appropriate for the opener of the Stock Show. There will be plenty of horses in town, and some will be pampered like royalty. With custom horse trailers topping $100,000 on display, you could spend a lot of money pampering your horses. Of course you can also look at a $65,000 pickup to pull that trailer.
What I don’t think you will see at this year’s Chinese New Year/Stock Show Rodeo is a Korean tradition for new year. In Seoul, South Korea, people are busy shopping for gifts as the Lunar New Year approaches. One favorite gift choice is a tastefully wrapped box of specialty foods. Gift boxes sport imported wines, choice cuts of beef, rare herbal teas, and, of course, Spam.
Yup, Spam. That gelatinous canned meat in the blue and yellow can is considered to be a gourmet gift item in South Korea.
What do you want to bet that there won’t be a Spam vendor setting up a display in the Civic Center this year.
I think that the tradition of Spam in Korea dates back to the Korean war, when there were food shortages all around that country. Meat of any kind was a luxury available only to the rich and well-connected. At the same time, US troops were being fed with food that was shipped in. Military rations aren’t particularly noted for their culinary appeal - just simple nutrition. So the soldiers had Spam. The excess pork shoulders canned in Minnesota traveled well half way around the world to Korea. And even after the journey, the soldiers preferred other foods when available. So Spam became a luxury item for sale on the black market in Korea and a tradition was started.
Young people in Korea probably don’t know the origins of the food. They sit down to a meal of budaejjigae (stew with Spam) in a restaurant, or order a large breakfast of kimchi and pan-fried Spam and eggs thinking that they are indulging in a luxury.
So there you have it. Luxury dining at a reasonable cost. Spam goes for about $3.50 in the grocery store, but you can sometimes find it for $2 a can at the dollar store. That’s three cans plus change for an hour’s work at minimum wage.
I guess you have to be in Korea for Spam to seem like a luxury, however. And an airline ticket to Seoul will set you back about $1,400. That’s a lot of work at minimum wage.
At $7.25 and hour, a minimum wage earner has to work more than half an hour for a gallon of milk. A meal for two at a mid-range restaurant in our city is nearly a day’s wages for a minimum wage worker. A modest three-bedroom apartment in our city costs more than half a full-time salary at minimum wage. That makes the oil fields in North Dakota seem attractive on the surface. Fast food restaurants are paying $15 an hour up there. But there is no housing available and what might be found isn’t affordable at fast food pay rates.
But the mission meal is only one of the things that is occurring on Friday. Friday is the opening of the big annual Black Hills Stock Show and Rodeo. We really do up our mid-winter farm and ranch show here with the civic center crammed full of displays and vendors, the fairgrounds hopping with all kinds of activities and, of course the rodeos. I think there are at least 7 PRCA rodeos plus the Xtreme Bulls Tour, team roping events, and more. There are special shows for all of the major breeds of cattle, horse shows and sales, art displays, concerts, trick riding shows, sheep dog trials and the west’s best auctioneer contest.
Big doings in the Black Hills all next week with the stock show in town. Time to polish the boots and get out the hat and head down to the civic center. You can sit in a pickup that is so fancy you’d never consider buying it, ogle the tractors that cost more than your house, take a look at a saddle that is worth more than horses sold for at the fair when you were a kid and watch demonstrations of ranch equipment that you didn’t know existed.
We’ll be so busy with the stock show that we might not notice that Friday is also the lunar new year, sometimes called Chinese New Year. It isn’t one of the big festivals around here, but it is usually noted with celebrations and a parade in Deadwood. The Chinese New Year is traditionally a time to honor ancestors and to get folks together for dancing, parades, and other events. Because the Chinese calendar doesn’t traditionally use continuously numbered years, there is some controversy about what year is coming. Those outside of China often number from the reign of the Yellow Emperor. That date is somewhat in question as well, so I don’t know if this new year is 4711, 4712, or 4651. It isn’t a big area of debate in our town anyway. There is more agreement that this week marks the last week of the year of the snake and Friday begins the year of the horse.
The beginning of the year of the horse seems appropriate for the opener of the Stock Show. There will be plenty of horses in town, and some will be pampered like royalty. With custom horse trailers topping $100,000 on display, you could spend a lot of money pampering your horses. Of course you can also look at a $65,000 pickup to pull that trailer.
What I don’t think you will see at this year’s Chinese New Year/Stock Show Rodeo is a Korean tradition for new year. In Seoul, South Korea, people are busy shopping for gifts as the Lunar New Year approaches. One favorite gift choice is a tastefully wrapped box of specialty foods. Gift boxes sport imported wines, choice cuts of beef, rare herbal teas, and, of course, Spam.
Yup, Spam. That gelatinous canned meat in the blue and yellow can is considered to be a gourmet gift item in South Korea.
What do you want to bet that there won’t be a Spam vendor setting up a display in the Civic Center this year.
I think that the tradition of Spam in Korea dates back to the Korean war, when there were food shortages all around that country. Meat of any kind was a luxury available only to the rich and well-connected. At the same time, US troops were being fed with food that was shipped in. Military rations aren’t particularly noted for their culinary appeal - just simple nutrition. So the soldiers had Spam. The excess pork shoulders canned in Minnesota traveled well half way around the world to Korea. And even after the journey, the soldiers preferred other foods when available. So Spam became a luxury item for sale on the black market in Korea and a tradition was started.
Young people in Korea probably don’t know the origins of the food. They sit down to a meal of budaejjigae (stew with Spam) in a restaurant, or order a large breakfast of kimchi and pan-fried Spam and eggs thinking that they are indulging in a luxury.
So there you have it. Luxury dining at a reasonable cost. Spam goes for about $3.50 in the grocery store, but you can sometimes find it for $2 a can at the dollar store. That’s three cans plus change for an hour’s work at minimum wage.
I guess you have to be in Korea for Spam to seem like a luxury, however. And an airline ticket to Seoul will set you back about $1,400. That’s a lot of work at minimum wage.