Every year, during the first weekend of August, Odessa comes together in the heat to celebrate Puddle Jumper Days.
The lipsync is a major event I participated in several times as a child.
If you connect the celebration to its direct predecessor, the Odessa Centennial Celebration, Puddle Jumper Days turned 40 last year.
I started covering Puddle Jumper Days in middle school. Back then, we used a whole team of photographers for the three days: Bud Jones, news editor, whoever the high school intern was that year, Clayton Crabtree if he was back in town, and me. There were charts to show who would cover what event. It took all of us.
Now, it’s me.
Big frog!!!
My friend Austin and his daughter, Natalie, who had a bow on her turtle.
That’s alright, though. This year, I even doubled up on the work. In addition to covering the frog and turtle races Friday morning, at the last minute I convinced the Rotary club to host the frog and turtle races, because we have to have frog and turtle races. As many immediately said, the frog and turtle races are the pictures people most associate with Puddle Jumper Days. I was the only member of Rotary who had ever attended a frog and turtle race, and many were surprised by the hundreds of children who attended. We hit a few snags through the day, but we’re going to put in a lot more planning this year and really do it right.
There are other events through the weekend that I’m a little more active in. I’m a consistent top-three finisher in the adult category of the spelling bee. I’ve never won, but for the second year in a row I went into over time (both of us having missed words) with Theresa McGraw for the title.
Puddle Jumper Days get the biggest annual treatment in the paper — a picture on the front page, the whole second front page, a double truck inside. It’s a big weekend for photography, but I always come out with a package I’m proud of.
Editor’s desk at the end of Puddle Jumper Days. Seen: water bottle used frequently in the heat, spelling bee certificate, notebooks with photo IDs, camera charger, green frog race entry forms, yellow turtle race entry forms, K-9 brochure from demonstrations, Keck’s homemade rootbeer bottle (a PJD classic), a geode I got to crack myself.