It was a beautiful October 1st. This Saturday may have been the nicest Saturday weather-wise since winter broke last year. The sun was shining, the air was warm, but not hot, there was a light breeze. In the morning, Marcela took Maxim to her dance class and then met up with Marie and Gordon and Gwen to walk around downtown Maynard for the annual Maynard Fest. All of the stores put out sidewalk displays, there were sing-a-long's for kids and face painting and lawn-mower-pulled trains, and music. The Maynard Fest is trying to become a unique regional outdoor festival - a one-of-its-kind, end-of-the-year celebration - that advertises the town. Marcela returned with Noah close to noon and said Maxim had stayed with Gwen. We ate some lunch and I went back to what I had been doing in the morning: cleaning up the yard and the house,
shopping for food and drink, and generally getting things ready for an afternoon and evening of children, food, and fireworks. I moved everything to one side of the yard and mowed. Then I moved everything back to the other side of the yard and mowed. Then I brought out my work table from the basement and a couple of table cloths and I set up a food area in back. I pulled out the bicycle, tricycle, and plastic car from the basement. I cooked potatoes and bacon for potato salad and chopped carrots and mixed dip and swept floors and moved things in the kicthen and moved the car and bartered with neighbors for parking places. All of this while periodically checking in on the Red Sox getting beat up by Randy Johnson. The barbeque and party were my idea, so a lot of the preparation was up to me. The rest
of the family prepared in their own special way. They needed their rest because it was going to be a long night of excited conversation and play. (Bones would actually spend most of the party hiding in the hall closet, but he needs his rest too.) We invited people over because we discovered last year that our house sits almost directly underneath the annual fireworks show put on by the management of the Clock Tower Place office building that occupies the old factory buildings here in town. People started showing up at our house at 4:30 and we lit three barbeques at 5:45. After I managed to fight off several other alpha males for barbeque cooking priviledges, we proceeded to keep three grills filled with cooking food for an hour, sausages and hamburgers and vegetables and chicken and mushrooms. At its peak we crowded 35 parents and children into the backyard.
Everyone kept asking where we needed to go to see the display. Stay where you are, we'd say. The kids were so excited. Fireworks! At 7:45, we started gathering people into the backyard. Any minute now. And then, without warning, the sky above us opened up. At the very same time that the parents all went ooh and aah, the children tried to jump under our skin and hide. We did not anticipate the shear terror it would evoke in almost every child, and they quickly retreated to the safety of Maxim's bedroom to watch through the window. Marie estimated the display must have cost about $500,000, given its length and complexity, and she quipped about how now she knew where her organization's steep rent costs at Clock Tower Place were going. Esperanza, Micaela, and Aron all stayed outside for the whole show. Brave children. We cleaned up a little bit and sent extra food along with whomever we could convince to take it. It was a festive Maynard Fest this year. This morning, only vague traces on the lawn and warm memories.
It was a beautiful October 1st. This Saturday may have been the nicest Saturday weather-wise since winter broke last year. The sun was shining, the air was warm, but not hot, there was a light breeze. In the morning, Marcela took Maxim to her dance class and then met up with Marie and Gordon and Gwen to walk around downtown Maynard for the annual Maynard Fest. All of the stores put out sidewalk displays, there were sing-a-long's for kids and face painting and lawn-mower-pulled trains, and music. The Maynard Fest is trying to become a unique regional outdoor festival - a one-of-its-kind, end-of-the-year celebration - that advertises the town. Marcela returned with Noah close to noon and said Maxim had stayed with Gwen. We ate some lunch and I went back to what I had been doing in the morning: cleaning up the yard and the house, 
shopping for food and drink, and generally getting things ready for an afternoon and evening of children, food, and fireworks. I moved everything to one side of the yard and mowed. Then I moved everything back to the other side of the yard and mowed. Then I brought out my work table from the basement and a couple of table cloths and I set up a food area in back. I pulled out the bicycle, tricycle, and plastic car from the basement. I cooked potatoes and bacon for potato salad and chopped carrots and mixed dip and swept floors and moved things in the kicthen and moved the car and bartered with neighbors for parking places. All of this while periodically checking in on the Red Sox getting beat up by Randy Johnson. The barbeque and party were my idea, so a lot of the preparation was up to me. The rest 
of the family prepared in their own special way. They needed their rest because it was going to be a long night of excited conversation and play. (Bones would actually spend most of the party hiding in the hall closet, but he needs his rest too.) We invited people over because we discovered last year that our house sits almost directly underneath the annual fireworks show put on by the management of the Clock Tower Place office building that occupies the old factory buildings here in town. People started showing up at our house at 4:30 and we lit three barbeques at 5:45. After I managed to fight off several other alpha males for barbeque cooking priviledges, we proceeded to keep three grills filled with cooking food for an hour, sausages and hamburgers and vegetables and chicken and mushrooms. At its peak we crowded 35 parents and children into the backyard. 
Everyone kept asking where we needed to go to see the display. Stay where you are, we'd say. The kids were so excited. Fireworks! At 7:45, we started gathering people into the backyard. Any minute now. And then, without warning, the sky above us opened up. At the very same time that the parents all went ooh and aah, the children tried to jump under our skin and hide. We did not anticipate the shear terror it would evoke in almost every child, and they quickly retreated to the safety of Maxim's bedroom to watch through the window. Marie estimated the display must have cost about $500,000, given its length and complexity, and she quipped about how now she knew where her organization's steep rent costs at Clock Tower Place were going. Esperanza, Micaela, and Aron all stayed outside for the whole show. Brave children. We cleaned up a little bit and sent extra food along with whomever we could convince to take it. It was a festive Maynard Fest this year. This morning, only vague traces on the lawn and warm memories.
No comments:
Post a Comment