Working Weekend

Even the kids get involved.

A couple of weekends we worked at the annual church fair. One popular activity at our fair is bingo because we have such good prizes. The local business are very supportive and some of the church members pitch in with additional prizes. Finally, the couple in charge of running the bingo table donate many prizes that Angela purchases throughout the year. 

Prizes run the gamut from week killer to oil to home decor to kitchen appliances and anything else that comes along. . This year I donated a white wall hanging with three fleur de lis designs in navy.

One table of sisters and family playing for prizes.

A few of my sisters showed up to visit, eat and play bingo. There was jambalaya, hamburgers, hot dogs, cracklins, and pulled pork sandwiches along with every type of cake, cup cake and home baked goods that you can imagine. Angie, my older sister generously donated fancy cup cakes and her daughter Stacey brought white chocolate bread pudding. 

After our visit and suppers, they sat at a table to play and I got back to work collecting money, cleaning tables, and calling games. When it was time to play for the wall hanging that I'd donated, my sisters had great fun teasing me about getting one of my quilts for the low price of one dollar. 

Angie and her grandsons showing off their winnings.

 I answered back (on the mic) that "you can pay, you can play, but you can't win." Well, I was wrong when Angie called bingo. She and another lady were in a tie and force to pull a number to determine who would get the quilt. Angie pulled the high number and won the small quilt. She quickly noted that she won it twice.  

Church of the Little Flower FAIR

Last weekend was our church's annual fair.   Richard and I worked both days. We generally help with the Bingo game on Saturday evening.  On Sunday we make cold slaw for the dinner.  Of course, mixing the slaw is only part of the job.  The other part is serving it!

Keep in mind that we usually have 1000 plates to serve.  That's a lot of slaw!  I don't have photos of working or fun from Sunday.  Three was no time for that.  10 or 12 people serve lunch continuously for hours with only a couple of very short breaks when we run out of food.  Of course, we laugh and joke, catch up with each others' families, visit with customers, and adore the children who occasionally pass through to give a hug to a hard-working grandma.  

 Our fearless leader calling numbers in this next photo.  Angela works hard all year long to secure great prizes for Bingo.  Some people come for hours and, actually, days to play, visit and win.  We could not find someone willing to work so hard or who could do a better job of getting prizes, workers, and everything else we need for a successful Bingo at the fair.

Here's my little crew of kids and grands playing Bingo.  There was no conflict of interest with Richard and me working and our family playing!  We openly root for them and, when I call, I tease them on the mic.  It makes for fun and transparency in volunteerism.  

 One fun, crazy gal and the cutest hubby around working.  Gotta love those money aprons.  Our fair is a typical country fair: low tech and high fun!

Children's games!  Mostly it's just kids running around, occasionally getting prizes for no reason, and making lots of noise. 

How do they not get into trouble?  Well, part of the shade has some "granny chairs" so grownups can keep an eye on whichever kid happens to be running past.  When granny gets tired, she goes play Bingo and grandpa has to sit a round or two.

One of the things I do to help out the fair is to donate a small quilt to the Bingo table.  This is the one I decided on this year.  It's a long lap quilt in blues and greens with a touch of yellow.  The idea is that the blue squares look like flowers.

I can say with a sense of pride that my quilts are a winning prize.   Players begin asking us to put it up as a prize on Saturday evening, but we make them wait for Sunday.  The hope is that people will come back to play again on Sunday if there are some great prizes available.  I missed the game when it was put up since I was serving lunches, but it's okay: I didn't donate it for the recognition. 

And so another fall fair is behind us.  That means the weather will be getting cooler and the holidays are not far behind.  The year is rolling by pretty fast.  I hope it's going well for you and yours.

Whew! That was WORK!

This weekend was our annual church fair.  Richard and I are the "cole slaw people" which means we buy and donate the works for the slaw which is just a tiny part of the whole church fair experience. 

If you want cole slaw for 1,000 people, I'm your gal.  No, I can't take credit for work and knowledge I don't own.  So the truth is Richard is your man.   He knows exactly how much cabbage and "color" to order, how much dressing to pick up, how to mix it precisely for taste and texture, and how many ounces to serve each plate.  

All of this knowledge is necessary so that the ingredients come out just right and there's enough for every plate.  Because, trust me on this, if you run out early, or the taste is odd, or the slaw is hot, or there's not enough, or, or, or.....  

It doesn't matter what you add on the back of an "or," if there's an issue, it's going to be a horrible, awful, miserable, catastrophic disaster with dire consequences!

Do I sound like a drama queen?  Cause, I'm not.  Really, it's the hubs of the family who has the nervous tick and the non-stop dialogue.  It's a mantra really, "Do this, stir that, it needs to be right, serve 4 ounces, find the right spoon to measure the ounces, don't put too much, put a little more, it has to be 4 ounces, use this spoon, serve 4 ounces." 

Can you imagine this man?  Sure, he looks like a laid-back cute hubby, but give him a reason to be nervous and he's all about the jitters!  What if he were responsible for the main dish?  What if he had to make the whole meal?  For all 1,000 folks?  Oh, he would stroke out during the first nervous breakdown!

My job is simple: mix the slaw while HE pours in the right amount of each ingredient, then go do something else....anything else.  Anything not where the slaw is being served. 

To that end I designated myself the ticket taker.  I stand at the window, take and count dinner tickets as customers arrive, bag up the correct number of plates while chatting them up so they forget how long they stood in line.  Is that not the perfect job for me?  Rich has the nervous breakdowns; I chat it up with total strangers.  We are GOOD!

An artist drawing of our pretty little church (internet photo)

 So now, at 5:00 o'clock in the afternoon, it's safe to say we lived through another fair.  It got a little iffy last night while I helped with Bingo.  I called Bingo numbers just a smidgen too long and all that loud talking and laughing gave me a headache, but it was fun and I slept really well, so this morning I was ready to go at it again.  


This afternoon I had even more fun picking up the handmade bench that I won.  It's really pretty and is the perfect length for our mud porch.  I'll add a cushion and we'll put it to use putting on and taking off muddy boots and shoes during the winter.  There's just enough space under the bench for storing those boots and shoes so they don't have to come in the house.  If I didn't know that Mr. Walter Riche made the bench, I'd consider it sent straight from heaven.  Wouldn't you agree?