They were heading out of The Popcorn Factory while we were heading in — one of the girls almost backed into me. I asked them if I could take their picture and they were sweet as pie about it. “What do you have to do to become a rodeo princess?” I asked.
“You have to learn stuff! About horses, yeah, but also, about politics and history… if you want to go to the nationals, you have to learn international things too, like who’s the Prime Minister of England…”
I thanked them and didn’t keep them too long, they had rodeo princess duties to attend to. The woman behind the counter asked me if I knew them. “Nope, but really, how can you resist?! Four rodeo princesses! They’re adorable.”
AC/DC – Highway to Hell – was playing on the radio. We ordered coffee and got a cupcake and a little bag of sweet and salty popcorn. Some other out of towners came in and the gal behind the counter, also adorable and sweet, pointed out a photo of a very young Kurt Cobain, Aberdeen’s unfortunate claim to fame. When you drive in to town the sign that says “Welcome to Aberdeen” also has the words “Come as you are.”
“His grandfather comes here,” she said to the women holding bags of popcorn and eying the more familiar images of the martyr of grunge. “He gave us this photo of Kurt to put in our store.” Kurt looks like he’s 12 or 14, smiling and blond and like any neighbor’s kid, like the kind of guy who could have, a few years later, dated a rodeo princess instead of Courtney Love.
“We had our funding cut for 4-H,” said the first woman behind the counter. “That’s too bad,” I responded, “because it seems like you have to learn that kind of stuff to become a rodeo princess.”
Last time I drove through Aberdeen – July 2013 — the Popcorn Factory was closed.
Do I remember waterskiing outside of Aberdeen under the shadow of The Mountain? C-c-cold!
I’m a big fan of a rodeo princess, and those look like four of the finest. Cheers!
They are adorable. Great photo!