Weekend of Festivals and Foxes
You just never know what you’ll find in small town America. Our country is dotted with small towns, yet all the attention goes to the glamorous (or not so) big cities. We’ve lived in both. I kind of like the small town, as long as I’m within 5 minutes from a grocery store, and a Taco Bell.
This past weekend we attended one of the great small town festivals – Vermontville’s Maple Syrup Festival, which is celebrating its 70th anniversary. According to the all-knowing Wikipedia, the idea for a Maple Syrup Festival was discussed in 1940 in the local barbershop, the locale for all great small town ideas. If you don’t believe me, watch some Andy Griffith. According to the 2000 census, Vermontville’s population was just under 800. It is the epitome of Small Town, U.S.A. with a quaint little library, the requisite few churches and a tree-lined downtown street. The Syrup Festival started as a way to promote the town’s local maple syrup producers, and it has turned into a weekend full of carnival rides, games, parades, craft shows, and of course – all things maple. I’m convinced that all 800 residents show up, along with many more from surrounding towns.
Take your pick of all-you-can-eat pancake breakfasts, naturally. We sat in the bays of the local firehouse and doused our pancakes with all the syrup our sweet tooth could handle. If that’s not enough maple for you, walk down the street and get some maple flavored cotton candy, or maple cream, or maple candy that is so sweet you can’t eat a whole piece in one sitting. And if you don’t get your fix at the festival, here’s a page full of recipes that you can use with the jugs of syrup you purchased. I personally am intrigued by the maple sauerkraut.
We sat in the grand stands for the parade which consisted mostly of politicians shaking hands and tossing candy in hopes of gaining votes this fall, local residents showing off their sports car of choice, the jr high and sr high bands, and tractors. Lots and lots of tractors. I do think the tractors were my favorite part, especially the orchard tractor. It makes me want to have an orchard just so I can drive a pimped out, low-rider orchard tractor. While wearing a pink cowboy hat, of course. But the funniest part of the parade was when the emcee called one politician a “she” who was actually a “he.” His notes were a little inaccurate. It made the parade that much more entertaining!
However, the most memorable part of the day happened while eating our pile of pancakes. An older man walked in wearing a hat made out of an entire fox’s skin – head, 4 legs, body and tail. The kids sat and stared at him wide-eyed. He caught their eye and told them they could pet his hat, which Little Miss did. As we were headed out, my path took me past his chair and he looked up at me with a twinkle in his eye and said, “My hat is named after you – Foxy!!” I laughed about that all day long. I asked him the story of his hat, and he was more than happy to tell. I mean, really, you wear a hat like that because you want to draw attention to yourself . He said he makes walking sticks and a few years back a man wanted a stick but didn’t have any money, so he traded the man a walking stick for the fox hide and a tooth from a grizzly bear (which he was wearing around his neck). The fox was an Alaskan red fox, and he found a place in Minnesota that turned it into a hat, which has to be the warmest hat ever. And now you know if you ever end up with a random fox hide, turn it into a hat and you’ve already got the best come-on line ever!
Are there any festivals that your family likes to frequent? Please share!
Filed under Funnies, Random, free | Tags: festival, fox, maple syrup, michigan, pancakes, vermontville | Comments (2)
Love at the Library
The library has been a big, bright spot in our summer. Two weeks into the unbearably humid, heatwave, rainy season, I was ready for it to be over. Then to top it off, when we did try to go out, every place was swarming with school-aged kids. It was more than I could handle to just make sure my wee ones didn’t get trampled by ten year old boys, and not very fun for my kids either.
But the library, oh how we love the air-conditioned, educational library where kids are sitting and participating in a free, structured environment!! There is a library branch about 1 mile from our house. If it weren’t so HOT we could walk, but I figure gas for 1 mile is ok, since that is pretty much the only place we have been going during the week. The first of June I scoured the library calendar and put all the events for our local branch on my calendar. I am IN LOVE with this little branch. We have been going to the library 2-4 times a week all summer long for story times, movies, magic shows, and story telling sessions.
I’m a pretty tough critic when it comes to magicians since my Dad and my father-in-law are magicians. Last week, the library brought in a magician who actually impressed me. He did all the standard tricks, but his delivery was impeccable and I could tell that he genuinely enjoyed working with the kids. And then he made a balloon animal for each kid (there were about 30 kids or so!). T-Rex promptly popped his tiger when we got home. Little Miss then begged me to put her balloon hat on her dresser where T-Rex couldn’t reach it!
And the summer programs? Perfect. There’s one story telling session that whenever we attend, we get 2 free kids meals at Bob Evans. The coupons are good through the end of September, and since there’s a Bob Evans just about 2 miles from our house – score!!! Cheap family night out.
But the coolest program might be the partnership with our local Major League Baseball team (which is actually at the top of the league this year!) If a child reads (or is read to) for a total of 24 hours, the child gets two tickets to a baseball game. There are little prizes along the way too as they “round the bases.” I think we’re only on hour 5, but this has prompted us to start something new with Little Miss – chapter books. I picked up C.S. Lewis’s “The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe” and The Narrator has been reading her one chapter each night. She is LOVING it and begs me to read it to her during the day (but I tell her it’s Daddy’s special book to read to her). She’s even started pretending that she is Lucy, and T-Rex is Thomas, and I’m Susan, and The Narrator is Peter.
Even T-Rex is enjoying the library, but more specifically – the story lady. Ahem. Miss T loves the kids and T-Rex has a crush on her. I noticed it last week when some one else was telling the stories and she was sitting with the kids listening. T-Rex kept going over and saying “hi!” Then he started playing with her name tag. Next thing I knew, he’d take a few steps away from her, fall down on purpose, look back at her to make sure she was watching, and then giggle. Soon, he was sitting on her lap. She was loving it. Now, every time we go to the library he grabs my hand and starts dragging me to the story room. Then, he stands right in front of her while she tells stories, as if she’s only there for him. It gets quite interesting when I try to restrain him so the other kids can see the story too.
And so, for sooo many reasons 
we love our library!
