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. 

Proof

Last year when my main computer needed to be replaced, the new box came with Windows 7, which I like.  One problem, the Cannon scanner software doesn't communicate with the new system.  I considered upgrading the scanner software, but have decided to move it to my other computer instead, which is still using Windows XP.

Which means it's about time to pack away the old HP scanner, which is slow, noisy, sometimes balky, and not that user friendly.  I'd have jettisoned it long ago, except that:

A.  It still works, and
B.  It has a transparency adapter so I can scan in 35mm negatives and 2" x 2" slides.

All that preamble to tell you that I've started a massive project to scan all my slides.  I'm not very far into the project; I'm up to about 1956.  I had a rather exciting "Aha moment" when I noticed something in this slide, for the first time yesterday; and I've seen it many times over the years.  This is from my first birthday.

On or near November 12, 1954, and appropriate to this blog, this was in Grandma and Poppy's kitchen.  Left to right, my Uncle Bud, me, and my sister Connie (I'm not sure why she's staring at the wallpaper).  Now Cousin Mike, see if you notice anything...interesting about this picture.  I'll give you a few moments...

Hint:  I've mentioned this here before (paragraphs 17 & 18), it's an old family story.

What we have here is photographic proof of waaaaaay back when I started out as a lefty, before my dad trained me out of that, and made me mixed-handed.  Before yesterday, I didn't realize there was any evidence.  It's neat the things I discover when I look through old stuff.

Oh, and another bit of trivia.  The windowpanes slid into the walls, and you'll notice the one on the right side is open.  I'm sure this wasn't too late in the evening, but it was already dark.  And though this was in southern Missouri, November evenings are usually cool there.  But this was 1954, an unusually hot year, or so they tell me.

While I'm in the mood, here's a few more pictures from that evening.

This one was actually taken just before the one at the top.  I don't know if Connie's trying to get my attention or Bud's.  And I don't know if Bud just sampled some of the cake, or if he was prompting me what to do next.  Well, we can see the story, even if we don't know the dialog.  This next image I cropped...seemed to improve it, I think.

I hope you enjoyed those!



  

Hot heat

Since everybody talks about the weather, I almost didn’t mention this. That kind of stuff is old news. But, it’s as good a place to begin as any, so why not?

It’s sure hot and dry here. Here being Missouri, more specifically the Kansas City area. Depending on what part of the city, or which suburb you live in, temperatures have reached highs of 97 to 104 this week. Monday the 6th (mid to late morning), I went out to check my garden. I wasn’t outside ten minutes, and I didn’t do anything I thought was strenuous. But in the process of opening part of the fence, picking two cucumbers, and putting the fence back, I almost passed out. I got back into the air conditioning just in time. A few hours later a reporter on the TV news said that temperatures and heat indexes are measured in the shade. In direct sunlight, you could be exposed to 115 to 125 degrees.

Now he tells me.

I’m not surprised that it’s hot (after all, it is August), and I’ve heard all the warnings before. What did take me by surprise was how quickly this affected me. Not that many years ago, I would stay out in the heat for hours. Bring it on. But now, it seems I don’t tolerate it as well.

My wife and I talked about this, and the discussion turned to how different our lives are from years ago. Long gone (for many, though not for all) are the days of houses without air conditioning. Gone also are long summer road trips with “470 air conditioning” (four windows rolled down, 70 miles per hour), sitting on hot vinyl seats with your shirt drenched with sweat. Sometimes we had to adapt our travel plans, driving mostly in the evening or at night. At home, we’d draw the shades and turn on some fans. When we were kids, we’d sometimes run through a lawn sprinkler outside to cool off. But now, we wouldn’t stand for houses or cars without air conditioning.

Enough about how times have changed. If it’s hot and humid enough that a heat advisory or heat warning is in effect, do the smart thing. Don’t go out unless you have to, and don’t stay out long. Wear a wide brimmed hat. Keep hydrated; drink more water than you think you need. If you have pets, make sure they have enough water. And, if you know people who have health problems or don’t have air conditioning, do them a favor and check to see if they’re all right.