Headed out around 10:30. I made a quick stop at one of the book kiosks to drop off a few I didn't want, then went back towards Collingswood. Stopped at the Collingswood Bike Share first. My back tire has a slow leak. It keeps deflating, and I keep needing to pump it. I left it with one of the gentlemen there, then went a block down to the Farm Market.
The Farm Market is blended into the May Fair for the Saturday before Memorial Day. By quarter of 11, it was teeming with people buying produce for their Memorial Day Weekend barbecues and family get-togethers. I saw zucchini and green beans for the first time. Just ended up with North Carolina blueberries and very sweet and tasty strawberries.
They were still working on my tire when I returned to the Bike Share lot. Turns out the tire had a teeny-tiny piece of metal in it that must have pierced the inner tube. Thankfully, the tire was otherwise fine, and the metal didn't do that much damage to it. He did say there was a spoke broke that needed to be fixed, but I'll do that another time.
Parked the bike at the rack in front of the Senior Center after it was fixed, then headed down a block to the May Fair. This is Collingswood's huge spring festival, encompassing most of Haddon Avenue. Since Lauren won't be coming until June this year, I promised her I'd take photos of the classic cars at the huge car show. The rows and rows of vintage vehicles were endless. They ranged from a 1920's-era Tin Lizzie to a truck from the 90's. Most of the cars dated to between 1950 and 1975. My favorite was a sleek red and white Ford Crestline and a pretty bittersweet Mercury that was said to be one of only two available in that color. I saw two purple cars Lauren would have loved.
In addition to the classic car show and the farm market (which closes at noon), the May Fair has a small midway for the kids at the end of Haddon near Westmont. There was a spinning cup-type ride, an adorable mini-merry-go-round, a rock climbing wall for the older kids, and tons of bounce houses. My favorite of the bounce houses were a nifty alien-themed one that seemed to be an inflatable arena for Laser Tag.
The rest of the fair is given over to many, many different types of craft booths. I saw at least four knitted stuffed animal sellers, but I ended up at my favorite, the one who embroiders such cute faces on her wares. I bought a lovely brick red dragon with crimson wings for myself and something for Lauren. They also had a booth with stuffed animals made from flannel or knit fabric. I bought myself the most adorable flannel cat made from soft white and gray dotted fabric and got Lauren a smaller knit stuffed animal. One of the local banks sold really neat wooden toys that made noise when you shook them for a mere five dollars. I bought a polar bear for me and another for Lauren.
(Incidentally, I named the dragon Persephone and the cat Tabitha.)
The church on Haddon Avenue across from Bank of America and PNC was having a yard sale. One older lady sold beautiful doll dresses with hand smocking trimmed with pearls. I bought Whitney a sweet pink polka dot dress. My favorite find was Christmas Is Coming! 1987, a collection of kid-friendly projects to make for the holidays. This one even includes several intriguing cookie recipes. Mom had - and may still have - all of the Christmas Is Coming! books released between 1985 and 1994. I fondly remember making several of the projects in these books. I know we did the construction paper angels in the '87 book. Mom hung them up around the house until they got too faded to put up anymore.
Had lunch at Cafe Antonio's Pizza a few doors down from the church. Not only were most of the food trucks and booths way too expensive, but I used the last of my paper money on the dress and book. I ended up with a tasty slice of mushroom, slice of tomato drizzled with balsamic vinaigrette, and Diet Coke. Ate it while watching people stroll by outside.
The fair had already been busy, with tons of people jostling to see jewelry, home-made wooden and metal items, hand-stitched clothes and accessories, beautiful local artwork, and toys for the kids. It was getting even busier as I made my way down to WaWa, probably helped by the sun vanishing behind clouds briefly. Surprisingly, WaWa was busy but not overwhelmingly so. I was able to get my Coke Spiced Zero and get out quickly.
Took the long way home across Newton Lake Park. The sun had returned by this point, and it was incredibly hot and humid, into the mid-80's. That's probably why I saw maybe two other people out in the park. Pushed up the hill and ducked down to Johnson. Everyone must have been either at the May Fair, on vacation at the Shore, or avoiding the heat.
Put on Sale of the Century when I arrived while I got organized. A very sweet woman dominated the episodes between Christmas and New Year's in 1988. Only the charming short guy got anything along with her in the first episode. In the second, she bought a gorgeous hutch (and I couldn't blame her - it really was a stunning piece), and all three contestants picked up something on the Fame Game. She only won the Bonus Round in the second episode, though.
Switched to Give Me a Sailor while relaxing for a while. I go further into this romantic comedy vehicle for Martha Raye and Bob Hope at my Musical Dreams Movie Reviews blog.
Took a shower, then listened to Best Loved Bands of All Time while finishing the blog. Jukebox Saturday Night gives us the flashier bands of the 40's. Big bands were at their height of popularity during the war years, when they provided needed morale boosting. Once the war ended, however, they started to lose ground to more intimate forms of music like rock and hotter, sharper forms of jazz. Among the hits that made the 40's swing were "Now Is the Hour" by Eddy Howard, "Ghost Riders In the Sky" by Vaughan Monroe, "Perfida" by Xavier Cugat, the title song by Glenn Miller, and "One O'Clock Jump" by Count Basie.
Jazz in the 50's tended to skewer more Sweet and Lovely or sharper and hotter as adults searched for the nostalgic music of their 20's and 30's childhoods and their children abandoned the big band sound for rock and smaller combos. Some of the band music that did make waves in the 50's included "So Rare" by Jimmy Dorsey, "Unchained Melody" by Les Baxter, "Mona Lisa" by Victor Young, "Melancholy Serenade" by Jackie Gleason, "The Syncopated Clock" by Arthur Fielder and the Boston Pops, and "Cherry Pink and Apple Blossom White" by Perez Prado.
Switched to the second Judy Garland Quadromania disc next. This one picked up with her big number from Ziegfeld Girl, "Minnie from Trinidad," and a series of songs from her movies with Mickey Rooney. We also get "The Trolley Song," "The Boy Next Door," and the title number from Meet Me In St. Louis and "On the Atchison, Topeka, and the Santa Fe" from The Harvey Girls. Non-movie songs including "On the Sunny Side of the Street," "Aren't You Kind of Glad We Did?," and "Blues In the Night."
The owner of the channel that posts the Match Game and Password chat episodes had trouble with YouTube and couldn't get the episode going until past 9:15. No matter. The random episodes he selected tonight were as much fun as any theme would have been. We mainly saw shows from between 1973 and 1977. We'd just seen the one with Clifton Davies and Brett's shirt with the police patches in strategic places, but it was a cute episode and I was happy to see it again.
A young redheaded man in 1974 kept chasing Fannie, Brett, and Adrienne Barbeau every time he won. Charles and Richard had to hold him off. Pat Harrington and Brett teased Gene about his checked suit making him look like half of a vaudeville team in another '74 episode. Pat makes a crack about a question being "more than Diana (Dors, Richard's ex-wife) ever did." Far from being angry, Richard ruefully agreed. Robert Urich got to kiss Brett and meet Earl, the little fellow behind the Audience Match board, during his one week. Big ex-football player Rosey Greer got to hear some pretty hilarious answers to what happened when the audience cheered because Gene Rayburn __ Richard Dawson.
You never know what you'll see next on this hilariously surprising marathon!
No comments:
Post a Comment