We made the 3 ½ hour drive to Cedar Point in Ohio Tuesday,
thanks to Emily winning two free tickets. Naturally, photos ensued:
As usual, any and all vacation trips can provide plot
bunnies for the next novel.
I love a parade
Some photos I took of the
2013 Chain O’ Lakes Festival parade in Albion:
Smoky Days pre-order success
Here’s a photo of Emily and me at
the Albion Fire Department’s annual fish fry, taking pre-orders for Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights. We got 32 confirmed orders just at the fish fry!
Speak of the Devil: As Time Goes By
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Lilacs, Parades, and Henway: The Problem With Adults
SLIGHTLY OFF THE MARK
The problem
with adults is that we’re not kids.
Specifically,
we lose that wonder, that joy of discovery that comes with being kids. The
coolest things happen right in front of us, but because they happen every year
and we’ve seen a lot of years, we forget how cool they are.
One day you
walk outside and, after months of gray, black, and white, everything is green.
Spring is here. That’s so cool. Have
you seen all those colors, the flower blossoms and such? For a few weeks, my
back yard was a wall of purple lilacs. The lush grass looks as if last year’s
drought never happened. There’s a family of rabbits living in the brush pile I
was supposed to get rid of. It’s all awesome, except the brush pile.
Last spring
a bird I’d never seen just showed up, walking across my lawn as if it owned the
place. Based on internet photos, I think it was a quail. Maybe it was a henway.
(What’s a
henway? About five pounds.)
I’m not a
bird watcher like the eminent Neil Case, but I think he and I still maintain
something from our childhoods: We both think seeing something in person that
we’ve never seen before is just … neat.
But the
same stuff over again can be neat, too. I realize this depends largely on what
the stuff is, and on the circumstances. If you were in London 50 years ago and
saw a police call box, you wouldn’t think anything about it. If one
materialized in your back yard and a time traveler hopped out, it would
definitely be noteworthy.
(See, it’s
a Doctor Who joke … never mind.)
No call box
has blossomed this spring, more’s the pity.
But I
digress, which is hardly new with me. What got me on this line of thinking was
Albion’s Chain O’ Lakes Festival, which should be in full swing as you read
this. Indiana is the land of festivals: Churubusco has its Turtle Days, there’s
the Huntertown Heritage Days, Wolf Lake’s pungent Onion days, and various other
days of Marshmallows, Apples, and Chautauquas.
Chautauqua
is neither a snack nor a fruit. Or is it a brand of bananas? Hm … I don’t know
what Chautauqua is. Let me look it up …
A system of
education originating in New York? How do you like that – a summer festival
celebrating education.
When I was
a kid, I’d beg to be taken into town to the Chain O’ Lakes Festival, even though
I was scared of some rides. The carousel? Terrifying. But to me it was like a
country boy discovering the big city, except with cotton candy.
I don’t go
so much these days; I’m usually busy discovering new things in other places,
such as looking up the definition of Chautauqua on dictionary.com, or Googling
photos of quail. Still, whenever I drive by I like to pause a moment, look and
listen and smell and try not to steer into a utility pole.
Usually I’m
busy in the early part of festival week, because that’s when the fire department
has its annual fish fry. Well, fish and tenderloin fry, because some people
have no sense of humor when it comes to fish. (We have no vegetarian plate, unless
you want a plate of chips and cupcakes.)
This brings
me back to the point of how we should have more wonder in the things we see
often. We live in a country where people not only volunteer to fight fires, but
also organize fund raisers to help equip themselves. That’s awe inspiring. And
a little crazy, but awe inspiring things often are.
We take so
much for granted. Another example: When I started trying to sell fiction, I was
armed with a thesaurus, an encyclopedia that took me three years to pay off,
and about half a dozen dictionaries. Now I have the internet. You know what’s on
the internet? Everything.
It’s much
more fun to go to the library, but if I’m stuck at home and need to look up the
definition of, say, “internet” … well, let’s try it:
There.
3,950,000,000 hits, of which the fourth one is an actual definition and the
fifth one a history. They say one guy, one time, actually reached the end of
the internet. He’s now a time traveler, zooming around in a little blue police
box.
Where was
I? Oh, yeah. At the end of the Chain O’ Lakes Festival there’s a parade, which
is aptly named the Chain O’ Lakes Festival Parade. Sometimes I’m in it with the
fire department, but often I like to sit it out, and take photos instead. I
have almost as many pictures as there are “internet” hits on the internet.
Last year the
Fire Chief invited Emily and me to ride in his command vehicle with him. Other
years I’ve been in other fire trucks, and sometimes marched with the volunteers.
Now, think
about that.
I got to be in a parade. In a friggin’ fire truck.
Maybe the
adult in me has gotten used to that kind of thing. But the kid in me is in a
frenzy of ecstasy.
Don’t you
think the kid is the one with the right idea?
Quail, or Henway?
Taking pre-orders for Smoky Days and Sleepless Nights
It’s a last minute idea, but during the Albion Fire
Department’s annual fish fry tomorrow Emily and I plan to take pre-orders from anyone
who wants a copy of Smoky Days and
Sleepless Nights when it comes out on July 20th. We’re not
asking for money, just getting a count of how many people might want a copy so
we know how many to order for the 125th anniversary party. (And contact
information, if you can’t make it to the party but still want one.)
We’ll have a proof copy at the fish fry (which runs from
5-7:30 p.m. Wednesday), so everyone can get a look at what the mostly-final book
will look like. The cost isn’t certain yet, but will likely be in the range of
$10-12 – not bad, for a book that comes with numerous illustrations. Naturally,
all the proceeds will go toward the AFD.
Of course, don’t forget there’s always the fish and tenderloin!
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