Franklin is a small town, so Sally and I have delighted in taking part in town life with Jay, Christy, Myah, Sarah and Noah.
Tuesday evening we went with Noah to attend his Open School Evening, where we were shown round Noah's new school. We visited his classrooms and met his teachers,saw his very impressive Gym, library area, dining area and music room. It was very interesting. Suppose, once a teacher, always a teacher.
Wednesday evening saw us at the Macon County Fair. Macon is one of the smallest counties in North Carolina, so the fair is a very local affair. There are no rides or midway. It is more like an English agricultural fair, or even a village show. There are many comptetitions for different foodstuffs, artwork, craftwork and displays from different interest groups and clubs. It was fascinating to walk round just watching people enjoy themselves and looking at the livestock and exhibits. We also had Funnel Cake (I enjoyed it, but it was a bit greasy). Now Christy had been a judge, mostly in the kids art categories, and learned a thing or two about local competitions. She came home with a look of trepidation, because she had found out that for pumpkins here was a 'Large Pumkin' class and also a 'Largest Pumpkin' class. One for best looking, the other for sheer weight. In watching the judging she saw a huge, lopsided pumkin, easily the heaviest there, dissmissed because it was entered (by the stewards) in the 'large' rather than 'largest' category. You could see that at some time when the grower found out, that there would be blood on the streets of Franklin. Christy was worried that she was the steward who had checked that pumpkin in. Fortunately not!! Agricultural and garden shows can be a dangerous place in a country which has the second ammendment.
There is also a pet competition. Family Baird have a Family Dog, called Sidda, or possibly Sitta, it seems to vary every time you ask one of the kids. She is a lovely nearly two year old boxer. They had entered the dog into the Best Dressed Dog category, dressed as a cowgirl dog. The competition was a riot of children, animals and parents variously trying to control, or escape, eat other contestants (there were some very appetising (to a dog) turtles and ferrets there for the 'Unusual Pet' category) or just run amuck, with a dear lady compere who was being so sweet to everyone, while having a number of long leashes wrapped around her by errant dogs.
After a very long process, whereby Sidda did not win the Best Dressed Dog award, which went to a 3 year old dressed as a fairy princess, whose dog, for some strange reason, was decorated as a butterfly. However, automatic entry into the Large dog Category gave Sidda the award of Best Large Dog. This placed Sidda into the Grand Final to find the Grand Champion Pet in Macon County, 2009. For some strange reason they won this section, so Sidda is now a famous Grand Champion, with her name in lights and a picture in the local paper!
Thursday Sally and I had a wander round downtown Franklin, looking at some of the crafts and getting a great cup of coffee in a place called Cafe Rel . This had been reccommended to us by a local. It was part of a local filling station and looked a bit rough on the outside. However, when we went in it turned into a high class restaurant and we had a really pleasant coffee break there.Scrummy cakes. Thursday evening saw me driving to Bryson City where Jay works on the local newspaper. We were going to a local Jam Session in the Library. We had a great evening, met a lot of locals and enjoyed some really good jamming.
Friday, Sally and I drove up country to Highlands, so that we could see some of the lovely waterfalls in the Cullasaja River. In the evening the local Arts Center had booked Doyle Lawson and Quicksilver. The place was packed and held about 2000 people. Everyone was up for a great evening. We sat and enjoyed some really good music. Afterwards we went to Fatz to get a cup of coffee and a late night snack. Very enjoyable night
No comments:
Post a Comment