A Mountain Birthday

It's not every day that there's a 150th birthday party! Today our town had a huge street celebration for the sesquecentenial of our county.

They had a rather large cake. Okay, I think this one was just cardboard, but they did have an 800 lb. cake too.

We joined with some friends. You can't really tell, but that car is exactly like the Mayberry patrol car from The Andy Griffith Show.

The town handed out free popcorn, free water and lemonade, and free ice cream. That was mighty nice!

Julia pretended momentarily to be an old-timey post mistress.

She made a candle. (They had quite a few "living history" exhibits with hands-on crafts.)

This homeschooling dad is a blacksmith, and he brought along a mini-forge for the kids to try. His wife had a display of home-canned foods. They also do Revolutionary War era re-enactments, so they have all the period garb.

He made the helmet above. Here, Julia is banging away at a hook that he allowed the children to make. They formed it, and then he put a hole into the flat end, so it can be mounted on a wall. Very nice!

Julia stands by some of his other wares. The chain mail suit was made by his son when he was 14, from a single piece of wire.

We saw people dancing.

And listened to lots of beautiful mountain music. Note the kiddos listening. Aren't they cute?

Oh, I forgot to show you the picture of the blacksmith's bellows. He made this himself.

Julia and her friend looped their hooks together and played tug-a-war, of course.

We drove home, tired, sweaty and thirsty, but happy about our good day in town. The fields and mountains quieted us. I do love being in this place.