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Watonga Cheese Festival Tasting Line
Relocates to Main Street
The popular cheese tasting line is back
with new varieties of cheeses and dips. The event has changed
location and can be found in downtown Watonga in the Oasis
Church Children’s Department, which is located east of the
sanctuary on Main Street. The Kiwanis Club will also be selling
cheese at this location.
This year’s cheese samples feature Smoked
Cheddar; Fiesta Cheddar, which is made with fresh white cheese
and butter jalapenos; Ranch Cheddar, which is also a white
cheddar with dill, onion and garlic flavorings; Onion Cheddar;
and of course, Mild Cheddar, which is always a crowd favorite.
This year’s cheese provider, the Hardesty Cheese Factory, has
been very helpful since local cheese is not currently available.
Always a favorite stop for festival
visitors, the tasting line will feature Green Chili Cheese Dip,
Celebration Cheese Ball, Chocolate Chip Cheese Ball, and, of
course, the always popular Cheese Fudge. Brochures with all
recipes being served will be available at the tasting line and
places of business participating in the Merchant’s Cheese Food
Tour. A printable version is also available online at
www.watongacheesefestival.com/2008_food_tasting_line_brochure.pdf
Local volunteers will man the line both
days of the festival, Friday and Saturday, Oct. 10 and 11 from 9
a.m. to 6 p.m. Laurel Poarch and Bill Kelly are co-chairs of the
Tasting Line again this year.
The Merchants Cheese Food Tour will also
be downtown at Clewell’s Hardware, Watonga Floral, the Fine Art
Show, Country Home Antiques, Temptations and Senior Citizens
Center. Businesses will have a window poster with a large star
indicating a cheese tasting stop. Jan Wear is coordinating the
Merchants Cheese Food tour. Members of the Domestic Engineers
HCE Group are making the cheese balls, dips and fudge.
A Music Trip to the Past at Cheese Festival
Cheese Festival goers and the City of Watonga will be treated to a special show by THOSE GUYZ,Okc in addition to the one time reunion performance by SPEEDY and the RUNAWAYS, Watonga’s own Rock N Roll Band of the late 60’s and early 70’s.
The show will be held at the Centennial Park located on east Main from 2:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m.
The band, Speedy and the Runaways, was known throughout the surrounding area where they performed for various functions, proms and teen hops.
The band performed in Watonga and surrounding towns, Geary, Fairview, Canton, Thomas,Woodward, Taloga, Okarche, Oklahoma City to name a few.
The band traveled to San Antonio, Texas to do a live radio performance on KEDA Radio as well as guest performers at a concert sponsored by the station.
During the WKY Radio teen hop days of well known radio personality, Ronnie Kaye, the band performed for some of his well known teen hops as well.
Original members performing will be, Richard “Speedy” Gonzales, Enid, Roy Gonzales, Blanchard, Eddie Gonzales, Clinton, David Gonzales, Muldrow, Daniel Gonzales, Clinton and long time friend Kenny Kautz, Mustang. Missing will be Nial Maytubby, who was the bands first lead guitarist and member.
The band will perform many classic rock and roll songs of the era and hope to take the audience back to fond memories of their school days and Watonga as it was then.
Anyone with the Watonga Trivia Game may bring it have it signed by the band members, since one of the questions in the game is about the band.
Preparations for this one time reunion show involved several miles of travel and months of rehearsal time for each of the members to make this a memorable show not just for the band, but for all of Watonga.
THOSE GUYZ,Okc is from Oklahoma City. The band is made up of Kenny Kautz, Mustang, Roy Gonzales, Blanchard, David Eddie, Oklahoma City, Greg Moody, Yukon and Geoff White, Yukon.
The band was recognized last year by General Deering, Commander of the 45th Fighting Thunderbirds Infantry with a letter of Commendation and award of the Golden Thunderbird Coin to each band member. The Band had performed a special show for the 45th before deploying to Iraq.
THOSE GUYZ, have performed throughout the Oklahoma City Metro area in night club/Sports bar venues, weddings and private parties.
The band has one CD release that has been played on satellite and internet radio in the US, Europe, Japan, Canada and Australia. The self titled disk is currently on download through the Orchard an internet music store located at
www.theorchard.com or can be purchased from the band at the venue. An order can also be made by e-mail to their band website.
The band will perform classic rock n roll as well as songs from their CD.
Their performance schedule can be found on their website,
www.thoseguyzokc.com or
www.myspace.com/thoseguyzokc.
Three hours of music and fun in the sun at the Watonga Cheese Festival with THOSE GUYZ, OKC and SPEEDY and the RUNAWAYS reunion show.
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here's a winner from
2004
Cream Cheese Cinnamon Bars
2 large tubes Pillsbury Crescents
16 ounces cream cheese
1 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. vanilla extract
3/4 cup granulated sugar
1 tsp. cinnamon
1/2 cup (1 stick) butter or margarine
In large bowl soften cream cheese Add 1 cup granulated sugar and vanilla extract, and mix well. Open 1 tube of crescents and unroll, but do not tear apart. Put them in the bottom of a 13 x 9 inch baking pan. Spread cream cheese mixture over crescents. Put the other roll of crescents on top of cream cheese. Melt butter and pour over crescents. Mix 3/4 cup granulated, sugar and cinnamon together. Sprinkle sugar/cinnamon mixture. Over top and bake at 350 degrees for 30 minutes.
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You can buy your advanced tickets for the Friday
night concert of the Cheese Festival now at Country
Home Antiques, 103 E. Main. Two separate
concerts:
Larry Ford and his band will be performing
at 6:00 pm,
City Moon will be performing at 8:00 pm
more............ |
Check out the Watonga Store for more
coffee mugs!
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These coffee mugs are on sale
now and will also be sold
at the Cheese Festival for $10 plus tax.
Call 580-623-5452 The graphic on the mug is "Cheezie
the Rat", designed by Dick Smith in the
early days of the festival.
One side
says "Watonga Cheese Festival" and the opposite
side says "The Great Rat Race".
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Chamber
Chimes
September 20, 2008
by Laurel Poarch
It has
been a long time since I have written this type of
column, seven years to be exact. After Don
Justice’s well-written letter in last week’s paper, I
thought perhaps people would not realize all the areas
of the festival where volunteers are needed. First
and foremost in my mind, is the Cheese Tasting Line
which Bill Kelly and I co-chair. The Tasting Line will
be set up in the east side of Oasis Church, which is the
former Los Desperados Restaurant. It takes a lot of
people to man the tasting line as it’s a very busy
place.
I
usually ask volunteers to work a two- hour shift. Some
of our faithful helpers work longer because they enjoy
seeing all the people come thru the line, plus they know
how much they are needed. Workers are needed both
Friday and Saturday. We open up the line at 9 a.m. and
close at 5 p.m. Free festival passes are given to those
working at least two hours (what a bargain!). If you
can help us out, give me a call at 623-7957, or call
Bill at 623-5535.
Another place people can help is the quilt show, which
will also be located in the Oasis Church (formerly Main
Street Clothing, Stage and for us old-timers,
Anthony’s. Pansy tells me they will begin putting up
the quilt racks at 9 a.m. Wednesday, Oct. 8th
. Then quilts will be hung on Thursday. They
need young people able to climb ladders and would
appreciate anyone wanting to volunteer their
assistance. They also need helpers on Thursday to
register in and hang quilts . Pansy Hollis is chairman
of the Heritage Quilt Show and she can be reached at
623-7645.
The
Cheese Food Contest will be located at City Hall. Joy
Rhodes is Food Contest Coordinator. The Jr. Division is
held on Friday and Sr. Division on Saturday. They begin
taking entries at 7:30 a.m. Volunteers are needed to
work two hour shifts both Friday and Saturday. To help
in this area, call either Joy or Sandy at the Blaine
County OSU Center, 623-5195.
I am
sure there are other chairmen needing help. Joyce Lucas
and Rhonda Olsen are taking all chamber calls since the
office is closed for repairs. Give them a call at
623-5452 for additional information. This has been a
challenging year for the chamber and board members are
working hard to promote Watonga. We are going to have a
great festival and it will be because the citizens of
Watonga help make it happen. |
August 1, 2008 --
Be prepared to be blown away again this year – but
this time, it’s the preparations for the Cheese Festival in October
that will knock you over!
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Seventy-five happy volunteers are working
tirelessly on preparing for festival stand-bys, such as the Rat
Race, the Cheese Food Contest, the Cheese Tasting Line, the Big
Parade, the Art Show, Craft Booths, Quilt Show, Classic Car Show and
lots of Entertainment.
But all the new stuff that is being thrown in this year
creates an excitement similar to putting on the first Cheese Festival in
1976. First, there will be a youth art show added to the art show; second,
there will be an ‘art project area’ where children will be given supplies to
create an art project; third, there will be a ‘culinary art show’ – a timed
cooking show; fourth, there will be Friday night entertainment at the
Liberty Theatre (lots of pickin’ and grinnin’); and this year there will be
an opening ceremony at Centennial Park just to make everything official!
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Everyone enjoyed homemade ice cream and cookies
at the concert in August |
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Another reason to jump up and down is the aggressive
behavior of the Committee to raise money to cover this year’s expenses. How
about the entertainment committee! They are holding concerts to raise money
for the ‘big name’ entertainment scheduled to perform on October 10th
and 11th. They have already had two concerts, raising over
$1200. Their next concert will be August 14th. (Something
was said about homemade ice cream)
The advertising committee with the help of the Domestic
Engineers Group raised over $1300 with a garage sale. And the Quilt Show
Directors have made two beautiful quilts (one is made out of Rat Race
t-shirts) to be raffled. |
A big thank you to each and all who have contributed to
these fundraisers. A festival with as much notoriety as our Cheese Festival
has is good for the community; not just for Watonga businesses, but for ALL
citizens. There will be more
‘new’ things to report, so visit
www.watongacheesefestival.com.
If you can help a little or a lot, please call 623-5452.
August 1, 2008 Press Release
Watonga Cheese Festival
October 10-11, 2008
As most everyone knows, the Cheese Festival had to be canceled in 2007 because of the severe damage caused by Hurricane Erin that hit Watonga on August 19, 2007. Well, the Cheese Festival is now back and better than ever in 2008!
Watonga has not only cleaned up and recovered, but it has also completed a 3-block streetscape project renovating its downtown area. With this year's Cheese Festival, there will be all the fun things to do & see as in the past, as well as some new things. We hope you will join us for all the fun things being planned.
There will be Cheese to taste at the tasting line & in some of the local businesses. There is the Cheese food contest &, new this year, a Culinary arts Contest, which is a timed event for students of area culinary arts classes. This will be fun for the public to watch.
The great rat race is Saturday beginning at 8:30 am. As usual, the parade begins at 12:30pm on Saturday. Just to give you an idea of that event, there will be Cheezie the Rat, a trick roper ( The Oklahoma Kid), the Shriners, OKC Scottish Bagpipers & Drummers, Indian City USA Dancers, & so much more.
Entertainment will be exceptional this year. City Moon will be at the Liberty Theater on Friday night &, on stage in Centennial Park, will be Roy Gonzales (a Watonga Grad of 1972) with Speedy & the Runaways, Thoze Guyz, and Larry Ford, who has performed at the Grand Ole Opry several times.
Along with lots of local talent, there will be clowns and face painting everywhere. The Heritage Quilt show will have quilts from local quilters as well as from other places. Raffle tickets will be available for the chance to win a beautiful home-made quilt.
The Art Show will have a youth art contest as well as talented adult artists from all over Oklahoma.The Classic car show is always of interest & will be again this year. There will be Crafts of all kinds in one of the big tents on Main Street.
In another Main Street tent will be Made in Oklahoma products & crafts. In the Armory building, there will be even more crafts as well as wines from various Oklahoma wineries.
New this year will be Craft demonstrations for you to view. A Chain saw artist, a whittler, & a yarn spinner will show you from start to finish how it was done in years past. For a small fee to cover supplies, your youth can make a Craft of their own to take home with them.
There will be delicious things to eat from venders as well as Watonga’s fine restaurants.
We are going back to the big tents & everything will be downtown this year.
Applications are available online if you would like booth space.
For more information contact the Watonga Chamber of Commerce at:
580 623 5452 or cwatonga@ pldi.net
Or check out www. watonga.com for information & pictures
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