Small World Part II: Dale Culp
I know that this is sounding like a broken record, but I just can’t help being totally amazed by it. The other night after Thursday Live, I had dinner downtown. After dinner, I stopped by my favorite place to see who was there before I headed home. There were a few people I knew casually, but no one I really know well. I was just about to head on out when in comes these three guys. Not guys that I knew, generally in their 20′s, the oldest maybe pushing 30, they all looked in general just like they may have come straight from the barn or fields of a farm. Given that we were right downtown, not even a full block from Main Street, in Lexington it was intriguing. I figured for at least a polite hello if not some casual conversation.
They ordered a beer a piece and the older one started talking about having to have sheared a few sheep that afternoon. Having helped with that process on more than on occasion I was already drawn into the conversation. Especially give, that since at least the 19th century, Kentucky is generally not well-known for its sheep or wool production. Turns out it had only been a few head that were shorn. The conversation then turned to not being available at all during the fall lambing season, as there would just be too much to do during that time to have free time to run around. Back to shearing, whenever it is going to be many more than 100 head they get someone to come in to do it. At this point I had to ask, what farm he worked for, as in the eight or nine county area there are probably 30-50 farms at most that have more than couple 100 head of sheep period.
Turns out he works for the University of Kentucky agriculture research unit that maintains the universities sheep herd. This of course led to my asking if he knew Dale Culp, a friend of mine that shears sheep professionally for a living, and has done things with the university on occasion, especially in the past. Of course he did and he was also good friends with the woman named Michelle that had helped Dale with some shearing jobs the last couple of years. I find all this very interesting myself, as I am pretty good friends with Dale and while I never really helped Dale all that much, I have on occasion. Just another example of how small the world really is, especially when you consider I am in KY, so was this guy, and Dale himself lives in Goshen, Indiana – but that was our common link.
Now Dale himself is interesting character. First, he probably does not weigh much more than 140 pounds himself. However, I have seen him set a 300 pound ram on his dock and sheer him out in not much more than a three minutes, sometimes even less. Maybe that is not to impressive for a young guy who is doing sheep shearing on a regular basis, but Dale is old. How old? I am not 100% sure, but I know he won the US (or was it the world) sheep shearing title back in 1970 – which incidentally was the year I was born. In recent years, he has not competed in all the events for the title, but still managed to come in the top ten places several times, including in 2007. For the official record you would have to ask the old man himself, but I am pretty sure he is 72 years young and will turn 73 sometime this winter.
A couple of interesting stories were shared between me and the fellow about Dale. He didn’t know Dale near as well as I did. My two favorites are how Dale starting shearing and how was talking about retiring a couple of years ago.
Dale got started shearing back as a teenager I suppose. He was making money helping at a local livestock auction. He had acquired himself a few head of sheep along they. I think he said he was making .30 an hour or something like and paying someone .80 an hour to shear the sheep, I may have the numbers wrong but you get the general idea. The local hardware/farm supply store had a set of sheep shears for sale at an 8.00 price or something. Dale figured he could pay for the shears with what he would save on paying someone else inside of one season. I kid him every time I see him about how tight he is.
I think it was back in 2005 I saw Dale and he was talking about maybe easing in retirement. Not travelling so far and wide to shear all over the eastern United States basically, but instead focusing just on the folks in fairly close to Goshen and few big customers with nice facilities. I think he even mentioned selling his trailer, which is set up with gates and ramps and three shearing stations to run the sheep through. So what happens when I see Dale again in the spring of 2006? He is driving a brand new truck with a brand new custom-built trailer that is even better than one he had before as far as how it is set up. I told him he will not retire until someone finds him slumped over in the trailer, a sheep running loose inside half shorn.
