RODEO 2017 has come and gone and our end of Palmerin St will return to its regular, more sedate existence.

Not that the rodeo is a bother. One or two days of cars parking outside our house is no bother, really.

We'd had some issues a few years ago when folks used to camp in and around their cars outside our house but this wasn't a problem really.

They could just be a bit noisy at 3am and it wasn't anything a well-placed sprinkler wasn't able to sort out anyway.

I normally get up to the showgrounds at least once on the weekend.

Not that I'm a massive fan of the events, I don't even go to hang around the bar.

It's just nice to be able to catch up with a few people I know from different parts of the state that I had met as a policeman. Ones I'd caught up with at Mount Isa, The Curry, Julia Creek, Nomanton and Saxby just to name a few places I had the pleasure to work when the local Rodeo was on.

I have quite a few stories I could share about "amusing” "exciting”and "interesting” things that happened at those events, normally not in the center ring, maybe behind a shed somewhere out of all the prying eyes, but they're probably better left unsaid. At least for few years yet.

I mean, "What happens at the rodeo - stays at the rodeo”. Right?

One thing that we really love about rodeo is dress-up day at school.

Fair dinkum it is the only day of the year that we have any chance at getting the younger kids dressed and ready to go to school anywhere resembling early.

Normally it's three or four kids fighting over one hat, sock, lunchbox etc (insert item here) and the youngest Gale kid left with a size 16 shirt for his size 6 body with about a minute until the bell goes.

On rodeo dress up day the kids are remarkably organised and ordered.

All dressed in their various cowboy or rodeo clown outfits, breakfasted and lunches made, well before mum even gets up to make a cup of tea.

I don't know what it is. I suppose they love dressing up and playing makebelieve.

My youngest in particular with his cowboy boots, chaps, double six shooters (a banana in each holster) hat, jeans shirt, bolo tie, belt buckle and plenty more. If he could dress the dog up as his horse I'm sure he wouldn't be safe either.

I remember one year, the boots were nowhere to be seen and my littlest cowboy had to go without them.

It chokes me up to remember the oh-so-sad look on his face that day as he left for school without them.

We later found them at about smoko time, buried in the bottom of a dirty clothes basket in one of the bigger brothers' rooms. They'd been hidden there in a cruel joke.

Nothing ends up in the dirty clothes basket normally, just on the floor.

We dropped everything and rushed them too school to my now happy Lil' Pardner.

I'm off to the P and F meeting this month.

I don't think it needs to be rodeo dress-up day, every day.

Once a week will be fine.