{"id":16825,"date":"2021-10-20T00:56:47","date_gmt":"2021-10-20T00:56:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=16825"},"modified":"2021-10-19T19:47:30","modified_gmt":"2021-10-19T19:47:30","slug":"sheep-silliness-and-shoes-made-for-walkin","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/10\/20\/sheep-silliness-and-shoes-made-for-walkin\/","title":{"rendered":"SHEEP, SILLINESS, AND SHOES MADE FOR WALKIN\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"

By JoEllen Collins<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n

\"\"
JoEllen Collins\u2014a longtime resident of the Wood River Valley\u2014is a teacher, writer, fabric artist, choir member and unabashedly proud grandma known as \u201cBibi Jo.\u201d<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

O<\/span>ne of the most rewarding public experiences I have had in a while was volunteering to dispense information, be alert for emergencies, and share our local hospitality to the tourists lining the sidewalks to enjoy the Trailing of the Sheep Parade on a chilly but clear Sunday. While I felt colder than I would wish, even in October, I realized the next morning when I awoke to inches of snow that we were lucky to have sunshine for this celebration.<\/span><\/p>\n

I was fortunate to be part of a unique event that is truly representative of a community that showed its best that day.\u00a0Although I have voiced similar praise in previous columns, I was full of gratitude that I live where I do.\u00a0Even amid local tensions due to COVID, a lack of affordable housing, and an insidious resentment of some of the \u201cnewbies\u201d moving to our Valley, I experienced again the gentleness of people, the evidence of senses of humor, the pleasure of talking with eager children, and an overall sense of belonging.<\/span><\/p>\n

A couple of years ago, during the same activity, I encountered one particularly hostile person with a large dog. Big or small, for safety reasons dogs should not be around sheep and their canine herders, especially with crowds and small children. It was an unpleasant experience, and I finally resorted to pointing out the owner to law enforcement. This year, I didn\u2019t encounter anyone hostile or upset, even with the expected delay of the traveling sheep, who don\u2019t need to rush to ease the impatience of awaiting humans.<\/span><\/p>\n

I did promise one of the spectators that I would mention in my column a funny and maybe odd set of occurrences.\u00a0One was that I was able to joke with some of the crowd.\u00a0When I said the sheep were heading to California, a cowboy-hatted gentlemen asked me, \u201cYou mean they are going to walk all that way?\u201d I couldn\u2019t resist the imp of humor residing in my mind, and answered, \u201cOh, well, they aren\u2019t going to L.A. Otherwise, they\u2019d be in limousines.\u201d\u00a0 He chuckled along with me at that image.<\/span><\/p>\n

Another was when several times women noticed my feet clad in a cute pair of black sneakers and some \u201cgold\u201d adornment, very comfortable and a kick to wear. This attention stimulated some lively discussions with women from all over, such as North Carolina, Texas, and several in a Pocatello travel-for-adventure group. All seemed to be enjoying the celebration and were full of friendly praise and pleasant conversation.<\/span><\/p>\n

I left the event with a smile and intention to volunteer for this every year, even though I live right along the route and can comfortably watch this kind of parade from a chair on my deck. Easy, but not in any case better than mixing with a hospitable and good-natured crowd at an unusual and quite special Idaho event.<\/span><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t feel sheepish at all admitting how much I appreciated the day and my shoes made for walkin\u2019.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By JoEllen Collins One of the most rewarding public experiences I have had in a while was volunteering to dispense information, be alert for emergencies, and share our local hospitality to the tourists lining the sidewalks to enjoy the Trailing of the Sheep Parade on a chilly but clear Sunday. While I felt colder than […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16827,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[2,22],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16825","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-commentary","8":"category-on-lifes-terms"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16825","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16825"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16825\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16828,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16825\/revisions\/16828"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16825"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16825"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16825"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}