Just in the month of July I have attended at least eight very different social gatherings. Of course the largest and the longest was the 4th of July celebration/ carnival in Annandale. After living, working and volunteering in this community for the past nine years I finally feel like we have roots here.
Similar to the Fisherman’s Picnic in Grand Marais, Mike and I walked through town and talked to many friends and neighbors. I was smiling at everyone. One man stopped and said, “I’m not sure why you smiled at me I don’t think I know you.” I shook his hand like a crazed politician and introduced myself.
He, in turn told me a good joke: A $20.00 bill was telling a $1.00 bill about all his travels around the country, to fancy dinners and shows. The $20.00 then asked the $1.00 bill where he’d been. The $1.00 bill said “Oh nowhere really just church, church, church! “
Four days and three cheese curd baskets later it all ended with a blast of beautiful fireworks.
I then went out with “the girls” to celebrate a birthday. Get seven or eight ladies together and no topic of conversation is off limits including that of the MIL (mother-in law), keeping in mind that, in all likelihood, we will all become mothers in law at some point in our lives. General consensus of the group: Do not use sarcasm with the MILs, they don’t get it and they don’t like it. I laughed until my sides hurt. This was a welcome social event because I had just returned from Ely where an old friend had lost her husband in a tragic fishing accident over the weekend. I was thankful I could be with her and share stories about her life with him and how much he will be missed. Social occasions, even when brought on by awful circumstances, can be very healing and supportive.
Then after we had the celebration of two family birthdays, a departing dinner for our daughter as she headed off to college and a couple of church fundraisers, there was the annual summer celebration and pool party at our friend’s house.
The afternoon started out very refined with cocktails, marinated lamb lollypops and shrimp kabobs but it quickly morphed into a free-forall with the hostess in the pool fully clothed, an all-out back flip competition (complete with Olympic scoring written on paper plates), to a full fledged tutorial on how to smoke the perfect pork butt.
The chef ’s wife called them pork shoulders, but he insisted we all should admire his butt and say that it was perfect. To his credit he had the most impressive smoker and a slow roasted technique. It took about 17 hours to roast four butts. Served with BBQ sauce it was absolutely delicious! We are so blessed to have such wonderful family, friends and neighbors in this community. It’s really starting to feel like our “home town.”
No offense, Grand Marais – you can take a girl out of Cook County but you can’t take Cook County out of the girl! There are many types of ships. There are wooden ships, plastic ships, and metal ships. But the best and most important types of ships are friendships.
Old Irish quote.
Taste of Home columnist Sandy (Anderson) Holthaus lives in South Haven, MN with her husband, Michael, and their children Zoe, Jack and Ben. Her heart remains on the North Shore where she grew up with her parents, Art and LaVonne Anderson of Schroeder. She enjoys writing about her childhood and mixes memories with delicious helpings of home-style recipes.
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