Small Town America

When I was preparing to move back home to rural Western NY from the big metropolis of Miami, Florida, some of my acquaintances were quite concerned. The closest mall is nearly 60 miles away and the local pizzeria doesn't deliver. Well shiver me timbers because I can walk to get my pizza and the last place I want to be is at the mall. On the other hand, I would rather spend my time looking for something new to try at the grocery or quilt stores...but that's an entirely different conversation.  LOL.

In trying to put today's post together, I was trying to find a common thread and pretty much realized these are all things that could be considered Small Town America. As an unannounced whim I thought I would add a linky party so that you could share a post (old or new!) regarding something that happened in your town.

And now...Small Town America in and around Wyoming County, NY...

#1
Two weekends ago we had a very momentous occasion...enough for many people to congregate at the local train crossing. One person had a camera drone and some random person driving through town asked if that was why we were congregating. Hah! for a much better reason!

The first weekend in August was to be the very last time a steam train was to go thru the area using the *old* train trestle in Letchworth State Park. The trestle is train worthy but it requires all trains to slow down to 10 mph so they are going to tear down the old bridge and replace it so they can maintain their traveling speed.

The last time we had a steam train come thru was 1985. I already told Denise that I was not going to look up any pictures that might include me in my teenage years :)

I also have a video if anyone wants me to email it...I'm late with this post and have yet to figure out videos on Blogger...

#2
My family runs the Griffith House at our county fair. The early 1800s house is in it's original position and just happens to be on the fair grounds. It houses the antique entries each year and also has an original fireplace where we can do open hearth cooking. Each year, a week or 2 before the fair starts, we offer a cooking class for a small fee. The class is for anyone interested but we do hope to attract newbies to cook during the fair.

Mom moving coals under the dutch oven which contains a steamed brown bread.
The spider (front) contains the bacon for bubble and squeak.
The kettles have beans for ham hock soup and taters for the B&S.
 Maybe you can pick out the "poor man's rotissery" chicken that spins on cotton string?

This year we had 7 students - 4 women, 2 men and a 10-year old boy. It's the most men we've had in class according to my lousy memory! The guys are going to cook together at the fair so maybe I'll remember to take more pictures when I'm not "teaching."

We had a pretty ambitious menu for class but we managed it all and actually finished early thanks to a great group of students!! Yumm! I might even make the ham hock soup when I cook on Sunday...I don't think I've had that before. I was also impressed with the green breans and tomatoes. Both veggies were from mom's garden. I'm not a fan of green beans but the sauce made it wonderful, as did the bacon!

#3
Dad and I attended a car show. It's the 48th year in that location and accepts any age car or truck - there were 25 classes to break down cars and trucks by age and production versus modified. Can you imagine the types of cars at the earlier shows? And that those people couldn't even imagine the types of cars we would drive now?!

"new" cars/trucks covering more than a football field or two

"old" cars/trucks - we were lucky to be in the shade!

Dad and his 1929 International farm truck - the second oldest vehicle present.
It's max speed is 35 but we generally only go 30mph.
It's fun to see people's faces as we drive by on the way to events. Especially when we honk the "hooooga" horn.

Dad won first place in his class!

OK my friends - please join in with any old or new posts that share an activity in your home town here in the USA or any other country. Please list your name and location on the link instead of the post name. I'll leave this linky open until the end of August so maybe there will be time for a lot of people to join in! And keep on your toes - I just might surprise you with another Small Town linky some day...

An InLinkz Link-up