During the past few years we went to St. John at Enochsburg (day before Labor Day) and St. Anthony at Morris on Labor Day. This year I decided to try the reservation system at St. Peter’s and called the number listed a few weeks ago asking for 12 noon (Cincinnati time.) Their system asks that the tickets be picked up at least 30 minutes before the reservation time. I hoped that this would allow us to avoid the long wait that we experienced in the past – it seems that lots of people go to the dinners on this holiday.
I left home at 10:30 and it was a little after 11 when I turned off at the St. Leon exit, turned right and a short distance later turned left on Route 46. It crossed I-74 once and then crossed it again. After a few miles I turned right on St. Peter Road and entered farm country. There were a few newer houses along the way but it was mainly farmland with large corn and soybean fields. After a little while we saw the church steeple in the distance. I parked across from the church in a very hilly field but never need to worry since I drive a Subaru.
I found the ticket booth and figured out that one line was for buying tickets and the other for buying tickets if you had reservations. There was an earlier (first) seating at 11:15 EDT and those tickets were colored green. Our 12 o’clock tickets were colored yellow and were in an envelope with our name written on the outside. Tickets currently being sold were for the 12:45 seating, which had yet another color. There was a tent near the entrance and not many people were gathered. It was about 11:30 and it turned out that there was one more table to be filled for the first seating. Our group of people with yellow tickets was allowed to go inside, ahead of our reserved time.
The gym had fans going and it felt okay inside but the day hadn’t warmed up that much yet. The setup had long tables holding 36 people with a good amount of space between them for the servers. There were nine tables so the hall holds about 320 people. We were in the last group of 20 and filled the last table. There were tomatoes and slaw on the table and the food started to arrive shortly. The food was spread out a little and it took some time to get everything passed around. The chicken was nice and hot and there were a good number of servers. They were very accommodating – Edith asked them to bring more legs for the little boy sitting across from her (and since that’s her favorite too, she was able to spear a leg for herself.)
The lady next to me said that everything was homemade. The green beans were good and it seemed that they were fresh. The person in charge of the gravy must have favored a little extra pepper, which suited me fine and I spooned it on my potatoes and noodles a few times. I was happy that I could have several pieces of dark meat; the meat tray was passed a few times and the servers were very good at quickly filling requests. The lady next to me didn’t take gravy saying that she needs to keep her carbs down and had her noodles plain. She was an attractive gray-haired woman.
When I looked across and down the table, I saw another woman who looked similar. I asked if they were related and found that they were twins. And these sisters were sisters! They were from Oldenburg academy, near Batesville. I later looked on the Web to see if I was spelling Oldenburg correctly and saw that there was a reference to the Academy of Sisters of St. Francis. Sr. Rachel was sitting next to me and her sister Evelyn sat across the table from her. Evelyn is 10 minutes older that Rachel. She told us that Sr. Margie from St. Peter’s was busy working in the kitchen.
Rachel spoke with great enthusiasm of the Academy’s upcoming 50th. Anniversary. I was impressed with her overall attitude. It was as if she was just starting out in her new career as a sister. Edith got into the conversation and the discussion turned to Catholic schools. Our kids went to Our Lady of Victory and the sisters knew many of the nuns who had taught there. And the discussion then turned to St. Dominic and the teachers they knew including Mel Schloemer.
I finished my dessert, a piece of German chocolate cake, and walked around a little to see if I could peek into the kitchen. I couldn’t see much except for a large table filled with deserts. It seems that the pies are reserved for the carryout orders – this has been true for the past several dinners. I was finally able to round up Edith and we headed out to the grounds. It was now a little after 12 and our table was being set. About a third of the new diners were being seated. We hadn’t felt rushed but the helpers were very efficient in keeping things moving.
We walked to the church and the pastel yellows and blues on the inside walls made for a very peaceful setting. The wall behind the altar was a deep red, which gave a nice effect. Then Edith reminded me that this was the color she wanted in our living room (and I, of course, would be assigned to roll it on.) Suddenly, the spell was broken.
In front of the church was a cemetery, probably the original. There was another cemetery behind the church and further back. There was a new black marble stone with “Shottelcotte” engraved on the face and indication that it was for a priest who was born in 1933 and who was still living. Nearby were older markers with the same last name. So when father’s time comes, he will placed to rest with his relatives from the earlier times. Behind the church, where was a very attractive and newly created Peace Garden in honor of Fr. Al, which will be dedicated next Sunday.
There were raffles, a big six table, beer tent, fish pond and homemade craft tent. There were lots of fresh produce for sale and many, many jars of jelly canned tomatoes and green beans. There were also lots of cookies and cakes. An announcement came over the loud speaker that the turtle soup tent was now open. The line was long so we skipped it this time. There was a long dinner line that stretched well beyond the tent. I assume that people with reservations didn’t have to wait as long as those who didn’t. There were about 30 people waiting in the carryout line (I guess that these guys get the pie.) I saw one man in the beer tent with his carryout dinner and can of beer – that looked like a good idea on this warm day.
The workers were busy in the tent behind the hall. The chicken was being dredged in flour and the large portable cookers were bubbling with chicken. I saw one of the men dropping thinly sliced large potato rounds into the cooker. I’m sure that this was a treat made especially for the workers. Mmm, mmm, hot fried potato chips with a little salt and a cold beer and a warm summer breeze would be a very special way to end the summer. We crossed the road and found our car.
Rather than retracing our route, I drove past the church and headed north. We hadn’t seen the school earlier and it looked to be a newer building and not that large. The road soon curved down through some hills into a small valley. I didn’t know where we were going but figured that we couldn’t get into too much trouble. After about 4-5 miles we came to a large road and turned right. It turned out to be SR 1 and in a few minutes we were approaching St. Leon once more. We turned onto I-74 and settled in for the familiar drive back to Delhi..