Peggy's Jibber-Jabber: Firemen's Carnival

It’s already Sunday afternoon, the sink is piled high with dishes, and I’m not crazy about that. I actually like washing dishes. I like having an empty sink. But the time is so late that I don’t even want to waste the ten or fifteen minutes it would take to wash them, in favor of spending time with you, and meeting my self-imposed deadline of late Sunday afternoon to publish. The dishes will keep.

I don’t believe I have any stories to tell you this week. Of course, I thought that last week when I sat down to write and we all see how that turned out!

Be that as it may, I still have a folder full of pictures to show you.

The Firemen’s Carnival, Festival, Celebration or whatever you want to call it (and I’ve seen it called all those things), was this week.

Mike and I went down late Friday afternoon for something to eat.

“What time do you want to go?” he asked.

I looked at the advertisement and saw the chicken dinners would be ready at four-thirty. “Four-thirty,” I said. We weren’t going for chicken but I thought if that was the time the chicken would be ready, then other things would be ready about then, too.

“How about four?” Mike countered.

After twenty-eight years I knew I could do one of two things. I could spend my time arguing with Mike about the time we leave and we’d leave at the time he wanted to anyway, or I could just be ready by four. I was ready by four.

We parked behind the bunk trailers and entered the park that way. It rained the day before. Sneakers and clothes were put out to dry.

The rides and games were sitting idle.

Nothing was open. No food was being served.

“I told you we shouldn’t leave till four-thirty,” my smartass husband said as we walked around the nearly deserted fairgrounds.

“There’s Jenny Walker,” I said nodding towards where this sweet lady was walking towards us.

“Hey Jenny,” I called. “When will they start serving food?”

“I heard around five, but the ladies at the pie tent said they’d be ready around four-thirty,” she said.

We stood and chatted and pretty soon more friends show up. Linda and Steve go to the same church we do and Steve is one of thirteen children. His sister is my best girl Joanie, who also showed up a little later.

“I like the roast beef sundaes,” Linda told us as we discussed food choices. “Steve likes the greasy French fries with salt and vinegar.” Linda yucked and shivered.

I saw a gal I knew and stepped aside to talk to her. When I turned back around the others had gone their own way.

Mike was talking with the workers at the Italian sausage stand, passing time until the sausages were ready.

Sausage in hand, a hamburger for me, we found a table and ate.

“Let’s go check out the roast beef sundaes that Linda was talking about,” I suggested.

Those wouldn’t be ready for another ten minutes or so. In the meantime, Mike got to know this guy. I didn’t get his name but I got his story. He had just been released from the hospital that morning after having had two stents put in.

“Wow. You’re amazing!” I told him.

“What is a roast beef sundae?” Mike asked.

“It’s mashed potatoes with roast beef, gravy, cheese, and a cherry tomato on top,” he told us.

When his help and the money box showed up, he served us a dish and I’ll tell you what. It was so so very good! (Mike ate the tomato)

More people we knew showed up.

Our pastor’s wife and kids. Some got roast beef, a couple of the others preferred walking tacos. Pastor Jay showed up a little later but I missed getting a shot of him.

Our county commissioner, Daryl Miller, was a volunteer at the roast beef stand. Mike and Daryl started talking about the intricacies of politics and I wasn’t interested.

I joined the Buccis at the table and waited for Mike.

We didn’t stay much longer. When we got back out to our car, I see a bird left a message on my side window.

“What in the world was he eating‽” I asked Mike like he’d know.

“Peg! You didn’t need to show us that!” you say.

I know, right! But you kinda expect a poop story from me once in a while, don’t you?

After we left the fairgrounds, we went to the grocery store for a gallon of milk. We were walking past the meat case and I see something and don’t know what it is. All kinds of possibilities cross my mind. When we got closer, I think I’ve decided it’s a piece of red onion skin — but I could be wrong. I did not do definitive research on this.

That roast beef sundae was so good, I hardly put up a fight at all when Mike suggested we go back again Saturday night.

I’m going to tell you right now that there’s another story in there that I’m totally skipping, at least for now. I do want to tell you so I’m gonna try and pick it up next time.

We were early to the carnival once again. Walking past the roast beef tent, there was nothing and no one in sight.

“Did they sell out yesterday and they’re not going to set up today?” I asked Mike like he’d know.

We went on down the food aisle to the Italian sausage stand. Instead of getting one and going back for seconds, Mike got two. I got a hamburger, again.

While we were eating, this gal and her husband came in and sat down. It tickled me when she pulled a clothespin from her purse and clipped her napkin to her top. My top would stay a lot cleaner if I had the guts to do this. You go girl!

Then we heard someone say that the roast beef stand would be open at five.

“I wished I’d’ve known that. I wouldn’t’ve gotten a hamburger,” I told Mike.

Nonetheless, we hung around until five and I got a roast beef sundae.

It wasn’t as good as the night before.

“Why not?” I know you want to know.

The night before it was made with a beef roast. This time it was made with sliced roast beef like you get from the grocery store and it wasn’t nearly as good. In fact, I didn’t eat it all and brought some home for the girls.

We walked past a stand that was selling arepas.

“Hey!” I exclaimed. “Lorraine (our cousin) just tried one of those! She said it was really good.” I’ve never heard of them and didn’t know what they were but there was a sign that said it’s sweet corn bread with cheese inside.

I do have more stories to tell. Not big ones but I’m going to try and make you an extra letter blog to finish up this week. But right now, let’s just do a few pictures and call it done.

Raini and I went out after a rain and found a blue jay feather.

Queen Anne’s Lace.

Virgin’s Bower, also called Devil's Darning Needles, and Old Man's Beard. It’s a clematis and there are over thirty species in the United States.

Native Americans used this plant to treat ringworm, rashes, colds, sore throats, and chest pain.

The seed heads were used as tinder or insulation.

They would put the crushed roots in the nostrils of tired horses to get them to travel a bit farther.

This is Indian Tobacco or Puke Weed.

It’s a member of the Lobelia family. It has a long use as a medicinal plant. It’s an entheogenic, emetic, and skin or respiratory aid. Native Americans used it for respiratory and muscle disorders, as a purgative, and as a ceremonial medicine. The leaves were chewed and smoked. The plant was used as a traditional medicinal plant by the Cherokee, Iroquois, Penobscot, and other indigenous peoples. The foliage was burned by the Cherokee as a natural insecticide, to smoke out gnats.

Although it may be used medicinally, consuming lobelia causes adverse effects, which may include sweating, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, tremors, rapid heartbeat, mental confusion, convulsions, hypothermia, coma, or possibly death. The root is toxic and can be fatal if eaten.

I like telling you about wildflowers and their uses, but unless you do a lot of research, and know what you’re doing, you’re better off leaving them alone.

Having said that, some are fairly harmless. See the double heads on the square stem of this one? This is wild basil and can be used just like store bought basil.

But again, you’ll want to know when to harvest. Some plants need to be harvested before they flower. Some you can use the flowers and the leaves, some just the leaves.

The berries of Silky Dogwood. They’ll turn purple.

This is Heal-all, also called Self-heal, Woundwort, Heart-of-the-earth, Caprenter’s Herb, Brownwort, or Blue Curls.

The young leaves and stems can be eaten raw in salads. The whole plant can be boiled and eaten as a leaf vegetable. The aerial parts of the plant can be powdered and brewed in a cold infusion to make a beverage.

This herb is used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat dizziness, red eyes, dry cough, dermatitis, and boils.

You can also boil it in water to wash and bathe in order to relieve muscle pain.

It’s called Heal-all for a reason.

I know you’ve seen this one before and we’ve talked about it. If you don’t recognize it, it’s Yarrow. If you crush the heads in your fingers and smell it, you’ll never forget it. It’s very aromatic and pleasant.

This one is Ditch Stonecrop. The fruit is a star shaped capsule consisting of five carpels united at the base, which turns red in autumn.

The yellow is Goldenrod and the white is Boneset. We’ll talk about them later, after the Boneset flowers.

It’s funny weird how things can flower in places I’ve never seen them before and don’t come back in places where I have seen them.

Case in point. This is Monkey Flower. I’ve seen it in my Milkweed patch once and not in the two or more years since then. This year I found it down by the pond!