Shamrock Club Picnic

 

Today I worked from home again, but I had to leave early for a dentist appointment. I made this appointment months ago and didn't think about the fact that it was the same day as the Shamrock Club picnic, but they put a fluoride treatment on my teeth and then said I couldn't drink alcohol for two hours. This picnic was BYOB, so I had lugged a couple of beers along in a cooler, and then I couldn't even drink one! Then Travalon didn't want one either! At least bringing the cooler along wasn't a complete waste, because I brought cheese curds and put them in the Home Run bowl, and people happily munched on them before dinner officially started.

I sat right in front of the band (Lilies of the Midwest, one of the groups that played at Irish Fest at Garver Mill), and various people came and talked to me. Travalon got there after work and arrived just in time to eat, and then we were joined by a family consisting of middle-aged parents, their twenty-something son and his wife, and their tiny baby. The baby really smiled at his grandparents - he must adore them! And they certainly adored him. The son was very chatty and personable, and they were all very friendly. The picnic was at McKee Farm Park in Fitchburg, which was conveniently located for Travalon, and I wasn't too far away either, after my dentist appointment. I was fascinated to see that the mandolin player in the band had a sticker on her mandolin case that said: "I (shamrock) Galena." Me too! 

While the music was very Irish, the food was not particularly; it was picnic fare like turkey sandwiches on pretzel buns, pasta salad, fruit salad, and all sorts of desserts. I may have sampled more of them than I should have, and I didn't even try nearly all of them, just the brownie, the rhubarb bar, the lemon bar, and the dirt pudding. There were so many cookies! It looked like most peoples' stuff got pretty well eaten, so nobody would feel like they brought something nobody liked. (I remember when I was younger and more ambitious, I would often bring beet risotto to potlucks, and half the time it got demolished, but the other half of the time people must have been terrified of magenta rice, and they wouldn't even try it.) Most of our cheese curds got eaten, and people even thanked me for bringing them. Potluck success!

Famous Hat