Someday, the 125th Taopi anniversary celebration will become legendary.

Thursday, September 07, 2000

Someday, the 125th Taopi anniversary celebration will become legendary.

It will become something similar to the Woodstock rock music festival of 1969 or the game where Hank Aaron broke Babe Ruth’s home run record or the last time Byron Huseby bought coffee at Renee’s in Adams.

More people will claim, "I was there for Taopi’s 125th." They will want to be included among the people who witnessed history.

The numbers will grow into the thousands. People who never heard of Taopi will claim they were there when this tiny town pulled out all stops to celebrate in the summer of 2000.

Taopi will be their claim to fame.

Well, it was a hellacious salute to history and heritage. More reports keep coming in every day: 500 wristbands sold for the beer garden at the celebration-ending street dance, more than 1,000 people at the street dance in a parking lot between the Chief Taopi Bar and the former Rusty Rail nightclub and, maybe the most significant of all, only one arrest.

Whatever the good folks at Taopi did Aug. 28 to celebrate their community’s 125th anniversary, they did it right.

Some people say all those people who visited Taopi Aug. 26 came for Les Kiefer’s 55th birthday.

Some people say the crowds showed up to see just what Maureen and Sue had up their sleeves when they said there would be a big announcement made during the Taopi parade. It turned out, Sue (a.k.a. Finbraaten) announced she is running for a seat on the Southland School Board.

What a let-down. That’s what I call being Golombowskied!

But, that was then and this is now, and the entire county is still buzzing about what a good time they had at Taopi.

But, there is life after celebrating with Taopi and unfinished business to attend to.

For instance: the missing members of the Pigs in the City family.

People, when in this insanity going to stop?

Lawn ornaments are one thing, but 400 pound concrete pigs painted or decorated like the flag of some small island nation are another.

Nothing is sacred. One of the Snoopy statues was decapitated in St. Paul last week.

In Austin, at least two have been stolen and others have been desecrated.

Hasn’t this gone far enough?

I think so, and being concerned citizen that I am I want to offer my assistance.

Recently in the mail, I received a letter in an envelope with an Austin postmark and no return address.

Inside the envelope was this cryptic message: Print this! Mystery of missing pigs solved."

It was signed Jimmy Hoga.

It came with a post script reading "Dredge Cedar River."

Also, it contained a graphic drawing of a concrete pig.

This may be the first break in the case of the missing pigs, and I’m going to do my civic duty and turn it over to Austin Police Chief Paul M. Philipp to assist his detectives in their investigation.

But enough of this and on to other more important things – like training for my rodeo debut.

That’s right: Yours Truly will be competing in the Minnesota Rodeo Association’s state finals rodeo coming soon to Austin.

After two straight defeats in cow-milking contests this summer, I’m going to do some calf-roping.

Move over rodeo superstar Ty Murray.

Big Lee is going to make rodeo history.