Chuckwagon suppers are popular in the Black Hills and other western vacation spots. Often there is some activity at the place of business before the dinner and show. The cafeteria style dinner, served on an aluminum pie plate, usually consists of bbq beef or fried chicken, baked potato, beans, applesauce, a biscuit and spice cake for dessert, with a beverage. After dinner on picnic type tables in an auditorium, a western band follows for the entertainment, performing country western songs with some songs in arrangements used by the Sons Of The Pioneers. The Fort Hayes chuckwagon supper show was typical.
Next to the large auditorium for the dinner and show, two of the buildings in the row of old style buildings representing an old western town were built for the filming of Dances With Wolves and moved to the current site. In one of the buildings an employee was using a lathe to make aluminum pie plates for use in the dinner and for sale. The crowd was such that I could not get any pictures.
This craftsman was making a rope from binder twine. Here one piece of twine was wrapped four times through three hooks at the end of a long plank and back to the black mechanism near his right arm. When the mechanism is turned, it creates twists, first in the strands of twine, and next between the twisted strands to form a rope. The three strands of twine pass through holes in a piece of wood to control the twisting. I had never seen rope being hand-made.
Here a bystander guides the control board up the new rope (at right) as the craftsman kept turning the twisting device.
The process continued until the rope met the twisting device. Then the craftsman completed it by splicing the ends of the twisted twine into the end of the rope and made a small loop in the other end to complete it. The helper here bought the rope.
The leader of the western band in the white hat is the band director at the local high school. The young lady with the violin at the right is a sophomore at the same school.
And the lead guitar player at the left just graduated from the high school! There also was a drummer and another guitar player in the band.
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