Cowboy Lobsterfest

It’s hard to describe that evening; you’d have to be there. Yet, it is worth telling.

In late summer, 1999, we were invited by some friends who are Lama Ranchers, to meet them down in Black Diamond, AB, for a lobster dinner. This is an annual special at the Black Diamond Hotel. So, we said sure.

It took us an hour and twenty minutes to get there.

Our friends were waiting, and had a table reserved for this sold out feast. It was an all cowboy and cowgirl place, we were overdressed, even though I had on khakis and a sweat shirt.

We sat at long tables covered with paper, and awaited the dinner. Every other person in the room was smoking as well as hooting and hollering. We had beers (champagne was out of the question) and awaited the call. When the food came, we lined up as quickly as possible, but we were toward the back.

It was a long, inefficient line but we got there, got our lobster and salad bar, and sat. It was a two lobster dinner but you had to go back for another try for lobster #2. It was really great, and we loved the food. For $18 each, it was sort of a deal if you lived somewhere near the place.

They had a band, a Newfy band (Newfoundland) because of the lobsters, who were dead and couldn’t hear the music.

So here we were, in a cowboy bar, eating lobster and listening to a basically Irish band while the cowboys danced to such favorites as “Whiskey In The Jar” (one of my all time favorites) “I went a riding over Kilgarry Mountain…” and “He’s only a Newfy In a Calgary Hat”.

It was a surreal experience.

It took us an hour and twenty-minute to get home.