May 19, 2002     St. Catharine Church     Westwood

It's a fairly short drive from my house, about 15 minutes. Edith and I arrived at about 2 p.m. and walked into the festival area. We saw whole chickens being placed on large skewers; they had just started and the first row of chickens was just placed over the glowing charcoal. I asked one of the men when the dinner began and he told me that it takes about 1 ½ hours for the chicken to cook and that the dinner started at 4 p.m. I should have read the starting times on my Web page but assumed that it started after noontime. 

We looked over the grounds and saw Ryan pool down the grassy hillside. That's where our son John life guarded for 3-4 years while a student. The festival had just begun and people were just starting to arrive. 

We came back around 6 p.m. and the outside air was filled with the smell of roasting chickens. A loud horn went off as a skewer of chickens were removed from the charcoal. They were placed on a table and cut in half, ready for the carryout orders. The coals were adjusted and another rack of chickens was started. We went in the school building and down the stairs to the cafeteria. It cost $6 for a half chicken dinner (less for a ¼ chicken.) 

The set-up was kind of plain with long brown cafeteria tables, and customers seated themselves. There was a small serving area where we got a very large half roasted chicken and normal size portions of green beans and cheese-potato casserole. We picked up a small dessert and drink. The chicken was very, very good. The white meat was exceptional juicy and the rest of the chicken was also very good. It was flavorful, most likely from a rub. The chicken was the main attraction -- it was a large serving and very tasty. We sat near some teenage girls -- my-my, they sure can chatter.

As we were walking out, we saw Jim and Dan Driehaus having dinner. They were wearing yellow "Return Driehaus" tee shirts and were there in support of their brother Steve who was elected as State Representative during the last election. Their father, Don, walked by and commented that Steve now has all of St. Catharine within his district for this election because the district lines were redrawn since the last election.

We walked around the games and displays for a while. There was a bid-and-buy auction in the courtyard (that I somehow escaped) and a number of typical festival booths. But there was something that I had never seen before, mainly for kids, Wacky Waxy Hands. They dipped a young person's hand in water, then in melted wax, then water and different colored waxes. They gently pulled the wax from the hand and then placed it in a carrying bag. It cost $4 and an extra dollar for plaster to make a permanent cast when they got home. A mother came back explaining that her girl had just gotten her wax hand and dropped the bag and the wax hand broke. There was a little discussion at first, but the man in charge said that he would do it over -- a nice guy who probably, at one time,  had his own cute little girl.

We were home by 8 and there will be no snacking tonight. I'm sitting behind my laptop computer writing these notes, and we are watching the special two hour finale of "The Practice" where Lindsay is charged with killing someone who thought he was Hannibal Lector (not my choice of show, but I'm only one vote.)