<p style="text-align: center;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-8075" href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2011/05/rooster-days-festival-broken-arrow/turtlecreekcloggers/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8075" title="Turtle Creek Cloggers Lauren McKinney" src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/turtlecreekcloggers.jpg" alt="Turtle Creek Cloggers Lauren McKinney" width="500" height="354" /></a></p>

<em>The following post is by <a href="http://fiddlepit.wordpress.com/">Lauren McKinney</a>.</em>

I have something in common with Phil Collins, and it's this: we can both feel it comin' in the air tonight.

<em>It</em> being <a href="http://www.roosterdaysfestival.com/">the 2011 Rooster Days festival in Broken Arrow</a>, of course.

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<p style="text-align: center;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-8073" href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2011/05/rooster-days-festival-broken-arrow/phil_collins_rooster_days/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8073" title="Phil Collins Lauren McKinney" src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/phil_collins_rooster_days.jpg" alt="Phil Collins Lauren McKinney" width="397" height="397" /></a></p>

Sussudio, people. Sussudio.

Rooster Days is one of my favorite things to do in the spring. For four glorious days each May, Central Park in Broken Arrow (at 500 S. Main Street) is transformed into a festival wonderland. It's chock full of entertainment (Carrie Underwood and Kristin Chenoweth both rocked the stage as teens), an abundance of delicious fried food, craft booths selling a variety of handmade goods, and of course, thrilling carnival rides.

The rides are especially scary when you consider the fact that they were erected in ten minutes flat by a gentleman named Cletus Dewayne. I LOVE IT.

Rooster Days is celebrating its <em>80th anniversary</em> this year. Amazing.

<p style="text-align: center;"><a rel="attachment wp-att-8074" href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2011/05/rooster-days-festival-broken-arrow/iloveyouroosterdays/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8074" title="I Love You Rooster Days Lauren McKinney" src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/iloveyouroosterdays.gif" alt="I Love You Rooster Days Lauren McKinney" width="225" height="320" /></a></p>

My favorite Rooster Days tradition takes place before the festival even starts: The legendary egg hunt.

It goes like this: the Chamber of Commerce hides a painted egg somewhere in Broken Arrow. It's on public property, and searchers don't have to climb or dig to find it. During the two weeks leading up to Rooster Days, a clue leading to the location of the egg is released each day. The person who finds the egg wins a prize package worth thousands of dollars and gets to <em>ride in the big Rooster Days parade</em>.

Amazing, right? Well, maybe it is amazing if you find the egg. For me, it's an annual brutal mind game. The clues are extremely difficult and cryptic.

I looked for eight days this year. I lost hours of sleep each night, waking up in a cold sweat, constructing intricate new strategies and intense searching methods. I pored over dozens of possible meanings for each word in every clue. Even now, I sit here, quietly weeping into Egg Strategy Map Version 7.2, which I painstakingly created complete with plotted points and complex theories related to street names.

Eight days of egg hunt hell and I came up with nada. The egg was found by a family on Tuesday, crushing my hopes and squashing my dreams. There's always next year. Lucky for me, the only thing that can cheer me up is the actual Rooster Days festival, which is right around the corner.

As a graduate of Broken Arrow High School, I fancy myself somewhat of a Rooster Days connoisseur. I grew up exploring the festival each spring, and now that I'm back in Tulsa, I can't wait to check it out again this year. In my experience, these are the highlights you won't want to miss:
<ul>
	<li><strong>The performance of the high school jazz bands on Friday evening</strong>. Seriously, they're phenomenal. Trust.</li>
	<li><strong>The Rooster Days parade on Saturday morning</strong>. This is a hot annual social event for Broken Arrowans. Personally, I like to put on my finest pair of jorts and hit the parade route early to see and be seen. (I'm trying to lobby the Broken Arrow Ledger to start a Who Wore It Best? column to celebrate parade fashion.)</li>
	<li><strong>If you thought arteries were the only things to get clogged at Rooster Days</strong>, you are sorely mistaken, my friend. The festival serves as a kind of clogging mecca, with several clog dancing groups performing throughout the day Saturday. Be sure to catch the Turtle Creek Cloggers, Just Gotta Dance, and the many Moore's Dance Studio groups doin' they thang.</li>
</ul>
<a rel="attachment wp-att-8075" href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2011/05/rooster-days-festival-broken-arrow/turtlecreekcloggers/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8075" title="Turtle Creek Cloggers Lauren McKinney" src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/turtlecreekcloggers.jpg" alt="Turtle Creek Cloggers Lauren McKinney" width="500" height="354" /></a>

Voila: The Turtle Creek Cloggers.

The big event on Saturday night is the crowing of the 2011-2012 Miss Chick. Come watch as Broken Arrow's best and brightest high school girls compete in an interview competition. The winner serves as ambassador for the Broken Arrow Chamber of Commerce.

Don't worry. You won't hear anything like this:

<a rel="attachment wp-att-8076" href="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/2011/05/rooster-days-festival-broken-arrow/missteensouthcarolina/"><img class="aligncenter size-full wp-image-8076" title="Miss Teen South Carolina Lauren McKinney" src="http://www.tashadoestulsa.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/05/missteensouthcarolina.jpg" alt="Miss Teen South Carolina Lauren McKinney" width="445" height="336" /></a>

Uh, I believe that our education like such as South Africa and uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and.

On Sunday afternoon, things wind down a bit with a just few musical performances and the annual showing of the Northeastern Oklahoma Square Dance Association.

I need you to know that I used to be an influential part of this organization, but it got too political- I got thrown out of the executive committee in a whirlwind do-si-do coup d'etat.

Okay, not really.

<a href="http://www.roosterdaysfestival.com/">The full schedule of Rooster Days 2011 events can be found on the festival website</a>.

If you're not interested in Rooster Days (shame on you, by the way...you fool) but you really like floating dots, check out the Rooster Days website anyway.