What I Learned From Autumn Leaf Festival

 So  today  we’re going to Clarion for Autumn Leaf Festival. It is the only event I know of where Clarion University and Clarion the town work together to cooperate.  The whole town goes all out for a week. A carnival moves into the middle of town. When I was a kid I thought that was amazing.  I always rode the Ferris Wheel and the merry go round, ate cotton candy. And all I had to do was walk up town.  

The merry go round is in the same place it was when I was a kid. The park across from the court house has the kiddy rides and the parking lot and convince store have the big kid rides set up all around them.

Tomorrow, Friday, the whole town from 2^nd Avenue to 8^th Avenue is shut down for a HUGE craft show. I start Christmas shopping tomorrow. Yeah!

For as far back as I can remember this has been my favorite holiday. Being outside for two days in the brisk weather is a big part of it.  Visiting with the Kroh side of my family is a big part too. 

Watching the Autumn Leaf Festival Parade is a big part too.  It is two hours and lots of floats and bands and Zem-Zems.  Lots of candy and really fun.  Last year Josh proposed to my niece Erin right in the middle of the parade in front of hundreds of people up on Main Street. 

This year they are riding in the parade as Mr. And Mrs. Josh and Erin Frederick! 

But this year is different too. This is the first ALF where my parents are both gone. I am the old lady now. Is this how my mother felt about ALF? Should I be happy I get to go? Should I be sad so many from my mother’s generation are gone? 

I think I will be both. Happy that I still get to go to ALF. Still get to see Erin and Josh, my niece and nephew-in-law.  I still get to see my brother and Tina. My nephew Danny, and Sheryl and Little Jack, my great nephew. There are some old friends in Clarion that I run into and my cousin and his family still live there. 

All the growing up memories are there too. Bike riding and swimming at the town pool.  Editing the high school newspaper. Bringing Roger home to the ALF and bringing the kids. So much fun and so many memories. They gather around me in Clarion. And make me sad that time is marching on. And happy that I have all that to remember, and I get to go to the parade one more year.  

What I Learned From A Box Of Baby Clothes.

  What I Learned From A Box of Baby Clothes.
There must be something to this Grammie thing.
Roger is cleaning the attic. He brought down a box. In 1993  I had scrawled on it: “David's baby clothes, made by Pam Brigham." David, born in 1982, was the first grandchild on both sides of the family. My cousin Pam went nuts making cute little outfits for him.  They are still in pretty good shape.  I pulled them out of the box and remembered when he wore them. I remembered how cute and cuddly he was in them. I remembered how proud I was of my little boy in his blue corduroy overalls where Pam had appliquéd his name inside a red apple.
I gave away a lot of baby clothes but these I can’t part with. I think I will use them to decorate at Jen's baby shower that is coming up later this month. I think they will look really cute hanging from a clothesline in the corner or something. 
But if I were a young mom attending that shower I would take a look at the baby clothes as decorations and think, "What a dumb idea. Who thought this up?" 
 The little clothes used to be something to cover David up.  Then somehow the clothes became adorable. And I don’t think it was because they were stored in a box in the attic.
I guess what everybody says about being a Grammie is true. Grandchildren are wonderful. Ayden is three and he sure is wonderful. When he comes to visit I just watch him and can hardly talk to his mother. The same thing happens when I see Townes. But when I see David and Jen’s baby I will remember David when he was little.  And that will leave me speechless. Believe it or not.  And my muscles will hurt from smiling no matter what that baby does. 
I can hardly wait to be called Grammie. I can hardly wait.  

What I Learned and Didn't Learn From Grandma Kroh

My Grandma Kroh was a little Pennsylvania Dutch, maybe. At least she made Pennsylvania Dutch pot pie. The same dish that the southerners call chicken and dumplings.  You can get a form of this at the Cracker Barrel, but if you want the good kind you have to come over for dinner. 

I admit, I am one good potpie maker. Ask my kids. Or my family.   

Pot pie is wide, flat, homemade noodles in chicken broth over mashed potatoes. You can find a recipe on page 182 of the More With Less Cookbook.

Or :

you can take a couple cups of flour

and a stick of margarine,  that could be part butter or Crisco,

and salt

and water. 

You mix them until you have a ball of dough you can work with.

(That means it’s not sticky or crumbly.  Add more flour just a little at a time if it’s sticky

And water a little at a time if it’s crumbly. )

Roll the dough out thin and cut the noodles  a couple inches square.

Meanwhile boil the daylights out of chicken until it falls apart

While the water is at a rolling boil drop in the potpie squares

Boil them 15 minutes uncovered and 15 covered or until they are done.

And make some mashed potatoes too.

At least that’s how my grandma showed me how to make pot pie. She didn’t cook the chicken until it fell apart but that’s how I like it.

After we sit down and say grace I always say, “Oh, this probably isn’t fit to eat.” Because that is what my grandma always said. It was always perfect and melt-in-your- mouth good but she always questioned that..   

Did she lack confidence? Was she fishing for complements?  I think she thought she was bragging if she admitted it was perfection. 

But I say, go ahead and tell me what you’re good at. I won’t think you’re bragging if you admit you’ve mastered something.  And you won’t think I am when I say I’m good at potpie.

Why don’t you come over for dinner and tell me what it is you do well?  We can celebrate anything from word search puzzles to rocket science over some chicken and potpie!