Page 149 - WINE DINE AND TRAVEL MAGAZINE FALL 2023 DISCOVERING TURKEY

Calgary Stampede gear begins with a white
cowboy hat which symbolizes Calgary’s west-
ern hospitality. Since 1949, everyone including
the Dalai Lama, Oprah, and the Duke and
Duchess of Cambridge has been spotted wear-
ing the ubiquitous white cowboy hat. And to
buy it? At Smithbilt Hats, where it was created
in 1946 and now sells over sells over 25,000
white hats during the Stampede. Hatter Kyle
Maier fitted a white straw hat to my head and
said, “You can’t help but smile when you’re in
a cowboy hat. It shows you come here as a
stranger and leave as a friend.” And sure
enough, I was grinning as I walked out the
door.
Next stop: cowboy boots. At the Alberta Boot
Company (which created the boots for the Cal-
gary Olympics), each pair goes through a 230-
step, seven-and-a-half-hour production
process. My foot doesn’t like anything uncom-
fortable such as high heels or pointed toes, but
cowboy boots have pointed toes because the
boots were originally designed to fit into stir-
rups. The first pair I tried on came up almost
to my knees, understandable as cowboy boots
were originally high to keep the snakes away.
A lower boot would be much easier to get on
and off. After trying on six pairs, I slipped my
feet into camel-colored boots which fit per-
fectly but very stiff. The salesman explained
that they’d last a lifetime, I just needed to
break them in. Wearing my brand-new boots
and tilting my white cowboy hat at a jaunty
angle, I swaggered out of the store like a gun-
slinger, ready to join the Stampede.
The Calgary Stampede kicks off with a pa-
rade much longer than the Macy’s Day Parade,
just with no balloons. Instead, there is a two-
hour march down the main street with colorful
floats, brass bands, bagpipers in kilts, cowboys
and cowgirls on horseback, horse-drawn
chuckwagons, stagecoaches, First Nations
groups, the Army, the Navy, Chinese acrobats,
Canadian Mounties, and much more.
Each time a group marched past us they
called out “Yahoo!” And we answered right
back. Yahoo! With all those horses clomping
down the street, there was much to be cleaned

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