East Texas Yamboree

In my home town in rural East Texas, we have a huge annual festival celebrating yams. That's right - sweet potatoes. This year is the 80th commemoration of the East Texas Yamboree. There are several different parts to the Yamboree, so it is attractive to many different groups. There is a livestock show, a carnival, a huge pageant, and several artistic competitions. For anyone who has never attended a livestock show, here's the idea: kids (8-18) raise chickens, pigs, rabbits, cattle, etc and bring them to the Yamboree. There, judges evaluate the animals and grade them on how juicy they look. Then they are purchased to be processed (i.e. killed and eaten). Below, you will see a photo (image 1) of pigs being shown at the Yamboree. Our carnival is seemingly like any other - greasy food, somewhat decent rides, and overpriced games. What makes it significant, however, is that it takes place in the middle of the town square, and that all of the surrounding businesses (INCLUDING THE COUNTY COURT HOUSE) close for three days! We take Yams very seriously. The pageant is my personal favorite part of the Yamboree. Each year, eight senior girls represent the eight Gilmer civics clubs in a two-week competition to see who can raise the most money for the event. The girl who raises the most becomes the Yam Queen, and the others are her ladies in waiting. Then, each girl spends thousands of dollars to have a one-of-a-kind, personally-designed dress made to wear for the pageant. Below (image 2) you can see a picture of MY dress from the year I was in it - and mine was less extravagant than many! The final draw of the East Texas Yamboree is our artistic competitions. Amateur creators from around East Texas submit their photographs, drawings/paintings, handmade quilts, sweet potato pies, and decorated yams for judging. The yam pilgrams featured below (image 3) won first prize at the Yamboree last year. As you can see, Gilmer is a very... interesting town. Our traditions may seem strange to outsiders, but I think anyone who's ever taken part in the livestock show, carnival, pageant, or yam decorating contest would agree: the East Texas Yamboree is something to remember.