An Evening in Free America

 

Our fire department usually has two fundraising events each year, a dance and dinner on the second Saturday in May and a Fish Fry on the last weekend in October.  Due to COVID limits, we canceled both last year.  The arrival of two coincidentally timely grants kept us from having to curtail any of our normal purchasing.  We decided last month to go ahead and hold our event (2020 was the first time in 43 years that we hadn’t had our annual dance).  As we suspected, people were so ready for live music and food that our crowd was huge.  We served every bit of food, the dance floor was packed and attendees were extra generous in bidding on our auction items.

That’s several hundred pounds of beef brisket.  Our dance hall was built in the 1920s and was deeded to the fire department 40 years ago.  The girls are granddaughters of older department members and carry auction items around for the crowd to review before bidding.  Note how it’s safe to let the little ones crawl around the dance floor.  We serve an area of 43 square miles with about 3300 residents.  Literally, two people walked up to the line with masks on and then removed them.

Check out the photos below:

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There are 13 comments.

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  1. Boney Cole Member
    Boney Cole
    @BoneyCole

    Free at last!

    • #1
  2. Seawriter Contributor
    Seawriter
    @Seawriter

    For God, Texas, and Miss Lilly!

    • #2
  3. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    Oh, and as happens every few years it was our anniversary (39 years).  I pointed out to Mrs Tex that she was treated to both lunch and dinner.

    • #3
  4. DonG (2+2=5. Say it!) Coolidge
    DonG (2+2=5. Say it!)
    @DonG

    That’s great.  Last Thursday in Austin, I went to a pitch-and-putt and there was big crowd.  It was a 90 minute wait to “tee off” and 100 people were just hanging out drinking beers.  Masking was only done for entering the “pro shop”.   People were having a grand time.  Afterwards we went to a restaurant with lots of outdoor seating and there were 200 people and the wait for a table was an 60 minutes at 9:00pm.  Pretty much just the waitstaff had masks and otherwise it was a bustling and a normal evening.  At both places, most people were Millennials or younger.

    • #4
  5. iWe Coolidge
    iWe
    @iWe

    Beautiful!

    I especially love the picture of kids running around….

    • #5
  6. Tex929rr Coolidge
    Tex929rr
    @Tex929rr

    iWe (View Comment):

    Beautiful!

    I especially love the picture of kids running around….

    All the kids are probably my favorite part.  We had a bouncy house that looks like a fire engine that was packed all night. Then some of the little kids wanted to try on gear and get up in the real engine and take turns hitting the air horn and lights.  I taught high school math here and there were about 50 of my former students attending, most of them with their own kids there.  I know that small town life can be stifling to some but it’s a real joy to us. 

    • #6
  7. Mark Camp Member
    Mark Camp
    @MarkCamp

    The Left won massively last year, and seemed to be involved in mop-up operations this year.  One of their major tactics was shaming: peer pressure.

    In this case, why didn’t two people who had be pushed into wearing masks outdoors by peer pressure keep them on at this event?

    The answer is that peer pressure can be used by those who are resisting oppression, just as it succeeded so well for the oppressors.

    (Or maybe that was not a success for the cause of freedom, if their choice was to muzzle up, but they didn’t feel free to.

    I don’t know.  We aren’t against masks, as a matter of human rights, but against allowing others to impose them on us.  It should be a choice made at the highest pragmatically possible level of practical ability and moral authority in the social structure,  with the individual at the top and the federal government second from the bottom, except in case of necessity.  There is no necessity in the case of the pandemic. There may have been at the very beginning, for two weeks when so little was known.)

    • #7
  8. JustmeinAZ Member
    JustmeinAZ
    @JustmeinAZ

    Looks like fun!

    • #8
  9. drlorentz Member
    drlorentz
    @drlorentz

    Back in the olden tymes when I lived in rural Maryland, the local volunteer fire departments held fundraisers too, except they were centered around oysters instead of brisket. I wonder if they’re still going on or if the fire departments have gone pro. 

    • #9
  10. navyjag Coolidge
    navyjag
    @navyjag

    Great post & pics. Can’t wait to bolt from SF and spend some time in God’s county (aka Oklahoma).  Only 12 days to go. 

    • #10
  11. Shauna Hunt Inactive
    Shauna Hunt
    @ShaunaHunt

    Looks delicious and fun!

    • #11
  12. GLDIII Temporarily Essential Reagan
    GLDIII Temporarily Essential
    @GLDIII

    Tex929rr (View Comment):

    Oh, and as happens every few years it was our anniversary (39 years). I pointed out to Mrs Tex that she was treated to both lunch and dinner.

    Hey I recognize that lady!

     

    • #12
  13. GLDIII Temporarily Essential Reagan
    GLDIII Temporarily Essential
    @GLDIII

    drlorentz (View Comment):

    Back in the olden tymes when I lived in rural Maryland, the local volunteer fire departments held fundraisers too, except they were centered around oysters instead of brisket. I wonder if they’re still going on or if the fire departments have gone pro.

    It has been hard to come by affordable oysters in the last 20 years. I recall the Grumman family picnics up at Merritt Point Park in Dundalk MD (shame to admit that was in the late 60’s early 70’s) where you could literally get your fill of oysters on the half shell. The only limitation was they never seems to have enough guys popping the shells open.

    Now a bushel of the mollusks are incredibly pricy and doled out maybe 6 to a plate at something like $50 to $75 for an un-shucked bushel.

    • #13
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