Re: company picnic

we've had fresh silver queen in the markets for a couple of weeks, janet. this is the time of year that the produce growers over around homestead really crank up.

At 08:52 PM 12/14/02 -0500, you wrote:
oh dear, I'm getting hungry again.  All that and silver queen corn in
December!
Janet

on 12/14/2002 4:23 PM, jim singer at jsinger@igc.org wrote:

> just got back from the company picnic. it was our annual winter bash
> combined with the nursery's 20th birthday party.
>
> one of the more interesting things at the party was the "sphere of death"
> from the ringling brothers & barnham-bailey circus. one of our mechanics
> owns this particular circus act. in essence, it's a big spherical cage that
> three guys on motorcycles ride in, each defying gravity in a separate
> orbit, zooming across one another's paths moto-cross fashion. for 40 years,
> victor, the mechanic, rode one of the motorcycles. his father did it before
> him and his grandfather before his father. his grandfather, a brazilian,
> conceived the stunt and had the sphere built. now victor's sons are the
> principal riders.
>
> today, victor replaced one of his sons so he could ride in front of his
> friends. it was the first time he had done so in two years. in the final
> act, victor's wife [in a costume that somewhat resembles wonder woman's]
> stood in the center of the sphere, arms upraised as though in victory, as
> her husband and two sons zoomed around her head. [i wonder what they talk
> about at dinner.]
>
> victor told me once that he really enjoyed his career with the act. he said
> it had allowed him to visit about 80 different countries and see a lot of
> things he would otherwise not have been able to see.
>
> for eats, we had wonderfully fresh oysters from apalatchicola, two
> barbecued hogs [that resulted in a mountain of pulled pork for sandwiches
> and four warming pans of ribs], two warming pans full of hot wings, two
> 5-gallon kettles of black-eyed peas [one tame, one very spicy], a 10-gallon
> pot of fresh silver queen corn on the cob, a large cooler full of stone
> crab claws, all kinds of salads and sides, and more beer, wine, sodas,
> orange juice, and plain and sweet tea than the 200 to 250 attendees could
> possibly drink.
>
> although all i did was eat and drink [the two things i do best], there was
> lots of other stuff going on. the nursery has a recreation area that is
> almost as big as its palm-growing area. the recreation area, which was the
> center of the picnic, includes a full-size soccer field with lights, a
> volley ball court, and two sets of horseshoe pits. for the occasion, we
> brought in one of those inflated "jumping" rooms for little kids.
>
> and for those who wanted a respite from all of the bustle and noise, there
> is a nature walk that follows a creek that runs through to property. the
> walk has short boardwalk excursions into swampy areas [way out from one of
> the boardwalks is a dead slash pine, devoid of limbs but with a bald eagles
> nest on top]. there is also a fire pit with bonfire; circular seating is on
> limestone boulders. lots of us older employees sit around this fire, drink
> wine, and lie to each other.
>
> when i left today, i told stephen and michelle [they are the owners of this
> remarkable enterprise] that all family picnics would henceforth and forever
> be measured against this one.
>
> and this evening, if the rain does not return, where will be a hay ride.
>
> jsinger@igc.org
>
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