I'm an old timer

I trust everyone had a wonderful Labor Day weekend. I considered doing some labor (mowing the yard), but I decided it could wait. So what did I do? I went to Old Timers' Day in Collinwood, TN!

For those of you who don't know, the Caffeine Folks moved back to Collinwood (their original home town) a few years ago. Now Collinwood is not the most happening place, but once a year damn near the whole town (all 1024 according to the last census) converges on the city park for Old Timers' Day. [Not sure about the placement of the apostrophe. I think the designer of the official t-shirt and I disagree on this one, but it's my blog so ...]

In all honesty, I had forgotten all about Old Timers' Day, but when I called Caffeine Dad, at 6:45 Sat. morning, he'd already helped my uncle load one mule, do something else to another mule, and just generally put in most of a day's work. Remember the Army commercial about how "we do more before nine a.m. than most people do all day"? Well the Army has nothing on Caffeine Dad. Anyway, I know Dad is an early morning sort of guy, but he sounded a little more keyed up than even his normal 6:45 a.m. self. When he told me what day it was, though, it all made sense. I couldn't believe he hadn't already left to go to the park -- breakfast in the park is one of the highlights of Old Timers' Day.

Seeing as how I'd never attended an actual Old Timers' Day, I figured it might be worth a trip. Of course I couldn't make it for breakfast, but I did make lunch (or dinner as the mid-day meal is known in Collinwood) -- yummy BBQ, homemade potato chips, and homemade ice cream. In addition to good food, I saw approximately 100 of my relatives. Actually Dad and I got our wires crossed. He thought I was meeting him there and I thought he was waiting on my at the house. I finally figured out he must be at the park and I was a little worried about finding him in such a large (by local standars) crowd, but I knew I'd be able to find some relatives and they'd point me in the right direction until I found him. Turned out he was the third link in my chain: Aunt Catherine to Cousin Sandee to Dad.

So Dad and I ate barbecue and I visited with relatives. After that I hung out with Cousin Becca and watched her make pottery -- she was selling some of her stuff, but she'd also set up her potter's wheel, I guess to try to drum up more interest in her stuff. I didn't buy anything from her Saturday, but I do have my eye on some of her work. As I hung out and watched the folks at the festival, I noticed a couple of things (other than the fact that I was kin to half the folks in the park) that made Old Timers' Day an unusual festival.

First, Cousin Sandee's older daughter (approximately 8 years old, I guess) wanted some sort of little toy that clearly was the status symbol of the preteen set at OTD. This particular toy was being sold at a stand clear across the park. Sandee finally gave in, as I knew she would. What was unusual, though, was that she just gave her daughter a $20 bill and sent her to go buy the toy. Did you catch that? A crowded park, full of all kinds of perverts and potential child abductors, and my cousin sends a child with money to go buy a toy. That doesn't happen anymore. I don't think Cousin Sandee was being a negligent mom, it's just a different world. Sure enough, little cousin made it back safe and sound AND she brought Sandee her change.

Second, the entertainment at Old Timers' Day was not, shall we say, restricted to professional performers. At first there was an actual band up on the makshift stage (a flatbed semi trailer), but once they finished their set, they sort of opened things up to the amateurs. Some little girl (approx. 5 years old) won the crowd over with the cute factor despite her complete inability to sing a coherent song lyric. Next the Collinwood Middle School (I think) band played a rousing rendition (or 2 or 3 or ...) of Rocky Top -- yes, it drew much applause. Finally a late teen or early 20s girl got up there and sang a few songs with pre-recorded music (essentially karaoke). That, in and of itself, wasn't so unusual, but do you want to guess what song she closed with? Go ahead, guess. She closed with "You Light Up My Life." I never saw that one coming. Through it all, though, she drew polite applause -- nothing like Rocky Top got, but c'mon it's Rocky Top.

Finally it was time to go. Though parts of Old Timers' Day were hokey (e.g., the parade of tractors, 4-wheelers, and horses/mules) I had a good time. I got to visit with some relatives without all the work that goes into our annual reunion, I got to watch Becca make pottery, and I got to eat yummy homemade ice cream. All-in-all, a good day. I think I'll go back. Next year, though, I'm going to make it for breakfast!

P.S. One final sign that "city life" has not corrupted Collinwood, ... On the way to Mom and Dad's house I saw a truck parked right square in the middle of a little one-lane bridge over a creek about 30 yards down a side road. Though it certainly wasn't a high traffic road, I did wonder just why this fella found it necessary to park right on the bridge. As I was driving by, I kind of twisted around to see just what was going on. Turns out he'd simply decided he needed to "relieve" himself and he figured the bridge was a good place to do that. Made sense to me.