Not To Get All Corny, But....

The annual Sweet Corn Festival drew about 20,000 people to our Podunk town this weekend and I think we served ice cream to at least two hundred of them. The Scouts made pretty good money for our efforts and we wound up with only half the troop getting sunstroke so, I’d say it was a successful fundraiser.

The Man-Cub and I worked our two shifts in the booth which, translated into Parent Speak, means that I stood in the booth, selling Drumsticks and Fat Boys to the masses while the Cub spent his time scaling the free climbing wall which had been graciously provided by the Army Reserve and which stood directly in front of our booth. Such a cool thing in such close proximity was hard to resist for both the Scouts and their siblings and, between the Cub and The Girl, my own children scaled that thing at least fifty times, possibly more.

The other parent volunteers and I didn’t mind, the booth was small and somewhat cramped when we were all in it so; the more time the kids spent outside of it, the more room we all had to breath. As an aside, you know it’s hot when an act as simple as breathing becomes a chore.

How hot was it? Hot enough to melt butter which, considering the fact that butter was used on all the free corn-on-the-cob you could eat, wasn’t necessarily a bad thing, if you’re looking on the bright side. If you don’t happen to be looking on the bright side, however, I will tell you that the temperatures were in the high nineties all day without a hint of cloud cover much less a cooling breeze and people were getting heat rashes in places that no one wants to get a heat rash.

I was grateful for the fact that our booth was shaded but, whenever I ventured outside of the booth for bathroom or soda runs, the sun was brutal. Luckily, there were a lot of neat vendor booths at the festival and, at one; I purchased a kicky little straw cowboy hat that at least kept the sun off my face, ears and head and, the fact that Hugh deemed the hat “totally sexy” didn’t factor into the purchase at all, I assure you (that hat is totally going with us to Barbados, anyway) so, I was able to avoid sunburn for the most part.

I wasn’t able to avoid a slight case of heatstroke, however. When the Cub and I finished our period of indentured servitude at 3:00, we ran into town to the bookstore and to do my grocery shopping which is when I noticed that we were both less than 100% in the energy department so, instead of fighting the crowds in the Hellmouth, we went out to a nice early dinner, just the two of us (The Girl had elected to stay behind and the festival with her friends and, since Hugh was working security, I felt safe leaving her).

Later that evening, once The Girl was home, we recovered by snacking on the couch (I mean, we ate snacks while sitting on the couch, we didn’t like, snack on the couch, that would be ridiculous. And, hard to swallow. I bet couch stuffing is terribly dry and, as always, I digress…) and listening to the faint sounds of the Travis Tritt concert from the comfort of the backyard porch. The kids wanted to watch the fireworks while lying on the trampoline so, I let them and; it didn’t surprise me in the least when they both conked out well before the fireworks even began.

I woke them up to watch but neither child was interested in doing much more that saying “ooh, ahh” once or twice before declaring themselves so over the fireworks and off to bed they went.

Yesterday, we lazed around the house in full recovery mode and, today, I get to go back to work. Yippee. Of course, we have air conditioning at the store which beats sitting in a hot booth outside so, at least there’s that.

And, it would appear, the summer is drawing to a close. Traditionally, once we have celebrated Stampede with my parents, attended the Corn Festival here, and eaten at least two cases of sweet corn; the summer is over and it is time to gear up for fall, football and back-to-school preparations.

The Man-Cub has football covered; he starts camp on Wednesday night. I picked up some new fall decorations for the front porch while I was in Mayberry and I’m ready to break them out and, we have school supplies in hand.

Hugh isn’t quite ready to let summer go, however. He is planning to take us all to a water park in Utah next weekend; he doesn’t feel like we’ve done anything fun with the kids this summer which, what with all the baseball, tutoring for the Man-Cub and working on the yard, I sort of agree. So, off to a water park we will go and, then summer will be over.

The corn could only last so long, after all.