Monday, January 30, 2006

Those better be good pies!

Day before yesterday, we had a fundraising dilemma. We had our choice of the Pie Auction for a Veteran's Memorial, or the Ground Hog dinner at the Methodist Church nearby my in-laws house.

Maybe we could make both.

The Ground Hog dinner (complete with 5-foot tall, paper mache ground hog figure - think Punxsutawney Phil- happily waving you into the common room at the Methodist Church) is a 50-year tradition.

For $6 you get to feast on all the ground hog (whole hog pork sausage - everything but the oink), baby white potatoes, biscuits, sausage gravy, iced tea, and an amazing sauerkraut/onion/ham hock dish that makes my mouth water just thinking about it.

ALL--YOU-CAN-EAT!

Start running low, just raise your little flag on the table, and a helpful Methodist volunteer comes-a-runnin' to see to your every culinary desire.

ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT-FOR-$6!

They discourage doggie bags for obvious reasons. After all, it is..

ALL-YOU-CAN-EAT-FOR-6-MEASLY-DOLLARS!

Stuffed and starting to feel the effects of our gastronomic gluttony we rolled around the floor of my in-laws house for awhile, talked about how sad both OU and OSU men's b-ball teams are playing, then made our way to the door -- going through single file to avoid getting wedged in.

Arriving home earlier than we thought, S suggested we swing by the Pie Auction going on down at the Exhibit building at the fairgrounds. Just to take a peek.

I waited in the car with the girls, while S braved the scrutiny of our fellow townsfolk and snuck into the auction.

She returned no less than 10 minutes later, got in the car, turned to me and said, "those better be good pies!"

Bidding started....STARTED...at $100. The pie she witnessed being auctioned off went for $175.

We saw people walking out of there with 3 or 4 pies in their arms. S said she counted at least 50 more pies that had yet to be sold, and we arrived an hour and a half after it had started.

We were humbled, and impressed.

Impressed, that our fellow townsfolk would open up their wallets and loosen their bank accounts for such a worthy cause.
Humbled, we lowered our heads and set our cruise control at 5 m.p.h. for the short drive home.

Once home we warmed up a cobbler with some Braum's french vanilla, and ate each luscious spoonful of blackberry, crust, and ice cream, as if it cost $10 a bite.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

And then in prime time, OU's mens basketball team beat #5-ranked Texas by ten points, so a good day all around.

Especially for the pie speculators.

OKDad said...

Should have known that faithful (and OU knowledgeable) Oklahoma Matt would chime in.

I didn't get to watch the OU game, but anytime anybody in the entire world bests any team from anywhere in Texas, it's a good day.

And I felt that way when I was a socal-lite as well.

Some biases travel across state lines very well.