Corn , cherries, and the beer joint

This time of year reminds me of the corn cob parties we used to have at the Spook House in August.  This is when our boys were small.  We would go to McConnelsville
on a Friday night and wait for Joe, Glenda, and their three girls to arrive for either a cherry-picking or a corn on the cob session, or both.  The spook house was an escape from the pressures of life.  It was and is across the road from the river and we found such happiness there.  It was like filling the car with gas and by Sunday afternoon we were filled up with goodness and ready for the week ahead. When we arrived Mother would have caldrons of boiling salted water outside in the yard.  Nice fires, newspaper-covered tables set up, and then all we needed was the corn.  Andy worked with a man who gave us as much corn on the cob that we wanted.  So we filled the station wagon with boys and corn and headed to the river house. Soon Joe and Glenda and the girls would arrive for the week end and the boiling began.  We cooked the corn, let what we didn't eat cool to handle, and we took it off the cob and filled small sandwich bags with the corn.  We put it in the fridge until Sunday.  That done I believe we went cherry picking on Saturday.  Seems like we combined that and if not we had individual visits to complete these processes.  We would go to the cherry fields and we simply could not stand to leave one juicy cherry on the trees.  We over picked, over ate, and over bought cherries.  They were glorious.  The kids had to pit the cherries and we made them keep their noses to the grind stone believe me.  After the work was done we cleaned up and went down the road to the Colonial Inn.  They had a dance floor, a jukebox, beer and the most audacious handmade French fries in the world, it seemed to us.  Juicy cheeseburgers were on the menu and dancing was required. Our kids had good lives even if they don't remember every aspect.  Life was and is so good to us.  Thank you Mom and Dad for preparing the way for us.

When I was teaching I took my entire class (around 30 kids) to the Spook House for a brouhaha week end.  The children enjoyed every minute of it.  We arrived first on Friday with a few girls and then everyone arrived on Saturday. We grilled and cooked and they all found things to enjoy but in the afternoon it started a gentle rain so I got the idea to take the class to the beer joint to eat and dance.  So off we went to the Colonial Inn.  We spent the entire afternoon playing pool, dancing, and enjoying French fries.  How did I get away with that?  We had the preacher with us.  Jill's father who was always good for a laugh thought that the beer parlor was a perfect solution for a rainy day.  My God, I could not get away with that now days.  As the children bedded down with giggles and whispers some on the wrap-around porch, some upstairs, some all over the house one, unfortunately, was in the house.  He had eaten so many hot dogs that he became sick and tried to outrun the upheaval by running room to room towards outdoors throwing up from one room to the next... and don't you know suddenly everyone was asleep (adults included) so guess who had clean up to do after a long busy day?