Well, I know all of you have been waiting with baited breath for my posting on the Mullet Festival. Baited breath... ha, ha. Sometimes it still astounds me that we all want to read about the mundane events of each other's lives, but we do. Anyhoo, the weekend was beautiful. It was sunny and cool, and we got to the parade an hour early, so we got a good spot. Poor Dad. "I looked on the internet, and it said the parade was at 9:00. I know it said that." Oh well. David and I walked down the street to a local yard sale happening in front of a church. We got a ton of baby books and two toys for $4, so that made my yard sale lovin' hubby's day. My favorite part of it was listening to the conversations of locals around me. Relaxed, elderly St. Mildred's parishioners met up with their neighbors... "Haven't seen you in awhile. How're the grandkids."
The Mullet Festival, sadly, has gotten smaller since I was a kid. The clogging stage? Gone. The multiple yard sales and vendors set up all over downtown? Pretty reduced. The parade? No Miss North Carolina with her local Marine escort. There used to be tons of Marines from Camp Lejeune that came to the parade, but I'm guessing they're all cleaning sand out of their shoes on fall weekends these days. But, the Shriners were still there! I love watching the Shriners. Little old ladies don't have anything as cool for themselves to do as the little old men do. I'm jealous. I want to be a little old man driving a miniature tractor trailer/boat/miniature something. It looks like so much fun! You've got to be a laidback guy who can make fun of yourself to wear a sequined fez and drive a souped up go-cart through downtown in front of your neighbors.
Gotta love Boy Scouts. You should click on this picture to get a better look at their faces. Such typical, adorable, pre-adolescent boy expressions; you gotta love it. We've got Bored, Spaced, Sun in my Eyes, Chin Scratcher, and I'm in a Parade and I'm Gonna Smile the Whole Way, all on the front row... I'm looking forward to dressing Seth up in a little uniform and sticking him on an overcrowded float pulled by somebody's granddaddy's tractor. And I think it's adorable when boys in soccer uniforms walk through the crowd, yelling, "Cold drinks! One dollar!" Adults grumble at their audacity, but I love their little boy swagger and excitement. This is the one time of year that 10-year-olds get to walk around in packs and yell things at adults. Let them enjoy it...
No Mullet Queen this year. But, the local Shrimp Queen and Princess made it there. They weren't the only "beauty queens" represented. There was Tiny Miss Southern Coastal Carolina from Albemarle to Beaufort, or something like that. I love how there is a beauty pageant for everything. It is my personal theory that just about any little girl can be a beauty queen, if she finds a pageant that has almost nobody in it. I am living proof of this. My Great-Uncle Brady, beekeeper of beekeepers and proud Piedmont Triad Farmer's Market board member, decided that the Farmer's Market should have ambassadors in the form of Queen and Princess. He got me to sign up for the contest. I sang a song and wrote an essay about produce. The judges were: my great-aunt, the grandmother of the other girl, and the grandmother's best friend. Guess who got queen and who got princess? =) I didn't care. I still got a crown and a sash, and the other girl was named Homecoming Queen of her high school, and she never showed up again, so I got to do all the ceremonial tomato cutting and ice cream churn off judging. I had a blast. If I can be a "beauty queen" with my huge, crooked nose and tiny eyes, and at that time, pencilled in eyebrows, than anybody can...
Ahh, my favorite picture. Dad and Seth went out to enjoy watching the calm water after Seth's afternoon nap on Saturday. I love watching my parents watching my baby. It's a treat for me to see their obvious enjoyment of being grandparents. Who knew I would get a kick out of them getting a kick out of my baby boy? And David and I love having an extra pair of hands so we can pretend we're newlyweds again. "You wanna watch the baby so we can wander off for 10 minutes alone? Ok. Bye!" It's blissful.
Well, I know all of you have been waiting with baited breath for my posting on the Mullet Festival. Baited breath... ha, ha. Sometimes it still astounds me that we all want to read about the mundane events of each other's lives, but we do. Anyhoo, the weekend was beautiful. It was sunny and cool, and we got to the parade an hour early, so we got a good spot. Poor Dad. "I looked on the internet, and it said the parade was at 9:00. I know it said that." Oh well. David and I walked down the street to a local yard sale happening in front of a church. We got a ton of baby books and two toys for $4, so that made my yard sale lovin' hubby's day. My favorite part of it was listening to the conversations of locals around me. Relaxed, elderly St. Mildred's parishioners met up with their neighbors... "Haven't seen you in awhile. How're the grandkids."
The Mullet Festival, sadly, has gotten smaller since I was a kid. The clogging stage? Gone. The multiple yard sales and vendors set up all over downtown? Pretty reduced. The parade? No Miss North Carolina with her local Marine escort. There used to be tons of Marines from Camp Lejeune that came to the parade, but I'm guessing they're all cleaning sand out of their shoes on fall weekends these days. But, the Shriners were still there! I love watching the Shriners. Little old ladies don't have anything as cool for themselves to do as the little old men do. I'm jealous. I want to be a little old man driving a miniature tractor trailer/boat/miniature something. It looks like so much fun! You've got to be a laidback guy who can make fun of yourself to wear a sequined fez and drive a souped up go-cart through downtown in front of your neighbors.
Gotta love Boy Scouts. You should click on this picture to get a better look at their faces. Such typical, adorable, pre-adolescent boy expressions; you gotta love it. We've got Bored, Spaced, Sun in my Eyes, Chin Scratcher, and I'm in a Parade and I'm Gonna Smile the Whole Way, all on the front row... I'm looking forward to dressing Seth up in a little uniform and sticking him on an overcrowded float pulled by somebody's granddaddy's tractor. And I think it's adorable when boys in soccer uniforms walk through the crowd, yelling, "Cold drinks! One dollar!" Adults grumble at their audacity, but I love their little boy swagger and excitement. This is the one time of year that 10-year-olds get to walk around in packs and yell things at adults. Let them enjoy it...
No Mullet Queen this year. But, the local Shrimp Queen and Princess made it there. They weren't the only "beauty queens" represented. There was Tiny Miss Southern Coastal Carolina from Albemarle to Beaufort, or something like that. I love how there is a beauty pageant for everything. It is my personal theory that just about any little girl can be a beauty queen, if she finds a pageant that has almost nobody in it. I am living proof of this. My Great-Uncle Brady, beekeeper of beekeepers and proud Piedmont Triad Farmer's Market board member, decided that the Farmer's Market should have ambassadors in the form of Queen and Princess. He got me to sign up for the contest. I sang a song and wrote an essay about produce. The judges were: my great-aunt, the grandmother of the other girl, and the grandmother's best friend. Guess who got queen and who got princess? =) I didn't care. I still got a crown and a sash, and the other girl was named Homecoming Queen of her high school, and she never showed up again, so I got to do all the ceremonial tomato cutting and ice cream churn off judging. I had a blast. If I can be a "beauty queen" with my huge, crooked nose and tiny eyes, and at that time, pencilled in eyebrows, than anybody can...
Ahh, my favorite picture. Dad and Seth went out to enjoy watching the calm water after Seth's afternoon nap on Saturday. I love watching my parents watching my baby. It's a treat for me to see their obvious enjoyment of being grandparents. Who knew I would get a kick out of them getting a kick out of my baby boy? And David and I love having an extra pair of hands so we can pretend we're newlyweds again. "You wanna watch the baby so we can wander off for 10 minutes alone? Ok. Bye!" It's blissful.
1 comment:
Ellen, boy would I ever like to see a picture of your beauty queen days!!! You made it sounds so funny. I was never allowed to run in those, they had a "Potato Blossom Queen" where I grew up. =)
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