Lamplighter Festival

In the next village over from us, Maple Rapids, population a whole whopping 680, most people are farmers, or construction workers, they hold a festival every year called the Lamplighter Festival where they celebrate those who brought light to the village, rain or shine, each night in the 1800s. Most people around here are very simple, not too much fuss with themselves, or thier surroundings, if you visit the post office, you will find a man with no shirt on, another man with long hair in a ponytail, and a woman with her hotdog-dog and no teeth, like I said, very simple people who don't need to impress anyone. My grandma, bless her heart, is a nominated lamplighter, and historian for the town, so on Saturday, I went out to the tiny village, where I watched the 20 minute parade with tractors galore, suped-up lawn mowers that are actually used for racing every Sunday, multiple tow trucks, semi-tractor trailers, and other big trucks that made loud, almost unbearable noise and where every Tom, Dick, and Harry that participated in the parade threw out gallons of endless Tootsierolls, Smartees, suckers, and bubblegum and where my 80 something Grandma smiled with delight as she passed by us in her parade vehicle. Needless to say, I felt humbled that in this tiny little village, these types of things are what the people look forward to each year, that holding this festival is a huge deal. So, I decided to make the best of it by experiencing some of the festivites too. After the parade I waited around for Grandma to get back from her parade route, and we walked the 25 feet across the street to the United Methodist Church, where we bought a $7 meal, that really was too much food for the normal person, but in Maple Rapids you are going to get the bang for your buck. The menu consisted of a hot beef or pork sandwhich smothered in gravy and mashed patatoes with a side of coleslaw, baked beans, cinnamon apple sauce, and of course an array of goodies, all baked by the women of the church. YUMMY!!!!! The money paid for the meal would later be used for maintaining the church. After that, we walked around the 3 block radius of craft tents, blow up bounce houses for the kids, a dunk tank, pie judging, antique car show, and last but not least a few carnival vendors that sold the comfort food of corndogs and elephant ears! Then we went over the the "Hospitality Tent" with a cover band and two trailors full of beer. We hung out there, with some of our friends, and mingled with relatives, and other friends of friends that we hadn't seen in about 3 or 4 years. We then headed over to the 1 and only bar in the village called, Chuck's Grill, where on a good night they would get maybe 20 people for spirits, but tonight they charged a $2 cover since they got the crowd from the hospitality tent, again the bar's biggest night of the year. Chuck's had a DJ playing some top 40 tunes, actually had the dance floor hopping with our generation, while the older, frequent visitors watched in amazement, or were forced to leave from too much confusion. The pic above, I think captures the spirit of the area that we live. You make do with what you have, you work hard, and in a place with one bar, one grocery store that is closed on Sunday, and miles and miles of crops, and woods, you find creative ways to entertain yourself and others.