June 9, 2002     Assumption Church      Mt. Healthy

I got off I-275 at the Mt. Healthy exit and was parking in the vicinity of the festival in less than 10 minutes. It was located on school grounds in the middle of a residential neighborhood.  This was our first time at this dinner, It was a warm and humid day and there wasn’t much of a line to get into the dining room. It felt good to walk into the air-conditioned gym, which was a clean, modern building. We were quickly seated at a table for eight that already contained bowls of applesauce and slaw. 

We were served chicken, corn/tomatoes, beans, potatoes and gravy. Our follow-up server was a small girl in a Brownie uniform – kind of cute and very outspoken. We were served as groups of four. Edith and I prefer the dark meat and, on average, most people like white meat. Unfortunately, our small group all preferred the dark. But that was not a problem and our server brought us another plate-full when asked. 

If I had to pick my favorite item, it was the cole slaw. It was on the sweet side and very crunchy.  I had my share and then I had my share all over again. We sat at the end of the table, across from each other. Next to us were a mother and daughter; the mother was a little older (she would probably say the same of me – he was a little older.) The mom only had two chicken wings but daughter had more of an appetite. They were parishioners and said hi to a number of persons who passed by. It was fun talking to them. 

This was a big festival with lots of booths (the sign said they had fireworks last night.) There were some booths with prizes that looked like the ones I used to see at Coney Island or the old Lawrenceburg Fair. Lots of booths means lots of people selling tickets and staffing things. I don’t know how big the parish is, but they had to have a good number of people supporting this setup. There was a small band with big speakers, playing songs that aren’t on any CD that I would have in my collection. The young man sang with great sincerity. They reminded me of a time when our son John played and sang in a group for a year of so. They too were most sincere. 

All in all, it was an okay dinner. But, I felt like something was missing. I think it’s because I’m not yet into the swing of things. It’s still early in the year and fresh things from the garden are far from showing up on the table. What I really need is to drive to a chicken dinner in the country to see some of my favorite farmland (and dream of having my own place in the country someday.).