When I was younger, my dad used to tell me about he and his father going to the Prison Rodeo in Hunstville and selling t-shirts. He told me about quite a few events and how the thing was pretty friggin' popular. In one event, a pot of cash wash tied to a bull's horns and if a prisoner could get it, they kept the cash. In searching, it seems that there is still a prison rodeo active in Louisianna and possibly Oklahoma.. My questions, did anyone here go to these? If so, any memories? Also, I don't think it would be politically accepted, but it would be curious to see how much revenue something like this would bring the state nowadays..
I would support a gladiator style event where prisoners can choose to fight for their freedom. They could spin a wheel-of-fortune wheel with all kinds of different animals on it to decide what beast they would fight.
For the record, the actual prison rodeos never freed anybody. They were merely entertainment/probably kept a good morale among some violent offenders. Franchise was just offering a whimsical suggestion, that I found (darkly) humorous.
I don't watch The Office (been meaning to, but too busy right now), but does Dwight make a similar joke on one of the episodes?
I grew up in Huntsville and went to several. There were numerous strange things about them, including whole swaths of stands given to the prisoners with the guards standing by. The oddest thing I remember was the announcer... "Here's Billy Bob Thomas riding that tough ol' bull Diablo. Billy Bob's serving 12-15 for armed robbery and assault. Let's give him a big hand."
I watched a dude get his eye knocked out out doing this. I don't remember if he got the money. I just remember alot of blood and his eye kinda hanging there. Made a bundle of cash sometimes on rodeo weekends...charging people to park.
I grew up in Huntsville and can remember going to the rodeo events as a kid. My dad, who worked for TDC's construction division, often had to work the rodeo as a volunteer. I remember it being quite an event, granted I was a kid so the actual size was probably a lot smaller than I remember. I do remember the rodeo drawing huge name country music artists. And the crazy thing about The Walls...while my dad was working for TDC, he had an office within The Walls and on Saturdays, he and I would drive in to get our hair cut. Back in those days, the inmates actually had to work, vegetable fields and cattle, so the higher-ups within TDC would get free/cheap meat cuts and vegetables. I guess a fringe benefit would also include free hair cuts. So he would get me inside the security check at the main entrance and we would wind around some hallways with a few inmates hanging around on the otherside of the bars. And we would end up spending the next hour hanging around a barbershop-like room where "trustee" inmates would cut hair and/or shine shoes. Damn, in retrospect, I was hanging out with some convicted felons who were prancing around with sharp-pointed scissors. What was my dad thinking???
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