I guess the first thing on the agenda is to apologize for last month’s column. Apparently what I sent to our poor editor was the one I did for August a year ago. Not realizing that I have been writing this piece for over a year now I accidently sent the first file I found titled August. With a little editing of names and places Doug managed to make it look like this year’s story. No doubt under the impression that I had finally gone over the cliff and not wanting to bother me in my delicate condition he felt it would be better to just take care of it for me.
Ok now that that is taken care of what has happened since last month. Central Office Picnic! Were you there? I was for a couple of days it felt like. Why? I’m glad I asked. Saturday august 25 started like any other Saturday, up around 6 am, goof off in the garage for a couple of hours, and then off to find a 153 pound porker and a couple of dozen chickens along with 100 ears of sweet corn and 60 plus pounds of potatoes, carrots, onions and several garlic cloves. Along with Doug C. a fork lift and a poor customer that stopped by to see why his car wasn’t getting fixed the pig was soon ready for the Dean H. custom built roaster. The plan was to start the coals around 8 pm and all would have gone as expected had someone (that would be me) remembered to grab the wheel and belt for the spit. After a mad dash back to Sandy old porky was spinning by 9 o’clock. You may not know but watching a pig you can’t spin around without a keg of good beer to keep you company is about as exciting as watching the grass get watered both of which would put most people to sleep if it weren’t for the fact that about every hour you need to add 2 shovels of charcoal to the roaster to maintain the correct temp in the roaster. What does all this mean? About the time you fall asleep on the too small back seat of the truck it’s time to get up and put more charcoal in the roaster. This repeats itself every hour all night and half the morning until the pig reaches the perfect temperature of 170 degrees and begins to fall apart all by itself.
Finally we can get some rest, I don’t think so. Those chickens, vegetables and corn are not going to cook themselves. Back to the roaster for another 3 hours getting a short break to cut up the pork and before you know it everybody shows up, eats all the food, wins some great raffle prizes a nice chat with Murray’s finest who want to know where all those cars came from and could we park a little better or submit to breathalyzer tests it’s 4 in the afternoon and all that is left is a mess to clean up and a stray overfed dog. With a lot of help from a few very good friends the pavilion is soon better that when we got there, its 7:30 I somehow managed to get home alive and about 2 minutes latter its 6 am Monday morning and the picnic is just a fond memory.
Seriously it was a grand time and I want to personally thank everyone that helped plan and make it happen. I would also like to thank all those that told us how good it was and everyone that came and helped make is a success. Al big thanks to the groups that donated prizes for the drawing and especially I would like to thank Kim and his band for showing up and keeping us entertained while we ate. For having a new venue and a new menu I think it all went pretty smoothly. We made a few notes and I am sure next year will be even better.
What’s next? Once again I’m glad you asked. How about the chili cook off November 10 at St. Ambrose Church, maybe a different movie or a good speaker. Mark it on your calendar and plan on being there. More will be revealed.
What else, oh yea elections for open positions on the board will be held in November and new members will start in January. Let’s keep the ball rolling and maybe even take it to the next level.
Elections for committee chairs will be held in December and all positions will be open. Want to help, we could use your help. It’s, it feels good and we have a great group. Remember it belongs to you so take care of it.
Lastly are you aware that we were able to lower the cost of literature across the board by 20 percent. Our new cash register is up and operational and it came in over 1,000 dollars under budget. When you see someone from the board or one of our committee members at a meeting remember to thank them for doing such a great job for us. Remember that you are always welcome at Central Office and the coffee is usually fresh or can be make so in just a minute. Hope to see you there.
Your humble servant
Nick R.
Chairman of the board Central Office