The Evening Rambler for about as late in August as you can get

This year will be remembered locally as one of the hot Santa-Cali-Gon festivals.  Last year was the "downpour on Friday" S-C-G, and 2011 was the "microburst blowing some of the tents down" S-C-G.  There have been other hot Santa-Cali-Gon weekends in years past, in fact, one was quite a bit hotter - like 105 or 107 degrees or some such insane thing.

I can almost hear you now, "What's with all this Santa-Caloo-Whatever"?  Well they had to call it something, and "Big Fall Festival" was already taken.  Actually, a big part of the local history here in Independence were the three trails west, the Santa Fe, the California, and the Oregon trails.  The Santa Fe trail started over 100 miles to our east, in Franklin, Missouri; Independence was one of the last two stopping points (the other being Westport) where people could make repairs and stock up before taking the long drive west across prairies and mountains.  At some point just west in Kansas, near Olathe or Gardner, the trails split apart.

The S-C-G festival for short (to save keystrokes, but I just blew that), has settled into a pattern over the years of a few carnival rides (always set up on the south end), food (funnel cakes, kettle corn, hot dogs, pickles, fried Pepsi doughnuts and the like), and crafts and clothing items (if any article can have a child's first name on it, it will be so).  There's also a few music venues out in the open, and today I happened by one band who was playing some good blues.  I also saw that a dulcimer club had set up under a tent, playing for all they were worth.  They had a good sized, appreciative audience.

One thing you don't see there anymore are the re-enacted gunfights; that seems to have gone by the wayside here.  Come to think of it though, I don't think we have a history here of shootouts, I always got the idea that was more of a Dodge City or Tombstone pastime.

And of course there are always crowds of people ambling along, though I think it was a bit less crowded than some times in the past.

Did I mention it was hot?  Brutally hot?

My wife and I came with a bottle of water each, and it was a good thing too.  We stopped by our church's booth for Fried Pepsi Doughnuts, and then began a search for a friend of mine, who helps his mom and dad sell some really good pickles (be forewarned, they have a bit of a bite).  We finally found where Blake was set up, and found out that unfortunately his dad had fainted from the heat and dehydration, and had been taken to the hospital.  We're still praying for Blake's dad, but we got an update that he's gotten good treatment and is doing quite a bit better now.

I hadn't planned on this whole Rambler being about Santa-Cali-Gon, but I think this has gone long enough.  I'll save the other stuff for another time. 

How about a slide show?

I've got the projector and screen all set up and ready to go!

"Bob, you're not going to show the old Colorado trip slides again?  Everybody's seen all those!"
"No, no...just a few slides in honor of Mike's birthday."

(Click of the power knob being turned to ON, the soft whirring of the cooling fan, and the sounds of the projector being adjusted so the picture's in the center of the screen.)

"Okay, this is actually a card we got from the Scowdens one Christmas."

"Aww!"

(Cli-CLICK!)

"This one's from Thanksgiving 1973 at our place."

"Look who's right out in front?"

"Yep.  That was a fun time."

(Cli-CLICK!)

"Ha!"

"Oops, gotta do that at least once.  Hang on, I'll get it."

(Sounds of the projector mechanism being opened manually, and the slide holder being removed, the slide being taken out, turned, and being re-inserted, and everything being put back right.)

(Cli-CLICK!)

"So okay, that's Mike and Kathy at the...wait, that must be from a few years ago.  That looks like a different house than the one they're in now.  I think."

(Cli-CLICK!)

"What's he doing here?"





"I think he was explaining to Victoria how McDonald's gets the eggs round for Egg McMuffins.  Mike knows all kinds of stuff like that."

"What I want to know Bob, is how you remember trivia like that years later."

"Not sure.  Kind of scary, huh?"

(Cli-CLICK!)

"This...and the one before too...were taken at Aunt Timmy's 80th birthday celebration."

(Cli-CLICK!)

"Well, not quite as bad as the other one.  Wait a sec."

(Sounds of the projector mechanism etc., etc., etc.)

(Cli-CLICK!)

"There we go.  Dave and Mike, same evening."

(Cli-CLICK!)

"The gang!"

But you know, what's weird is that I couldn't find any of Mike on one of his birthdays.

************

Mike, I hope you had a Happy Birthday!  With cake.  And all.