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Jon Kennedy's 'Postcards from
the Nanty Glo in My Mind'
Hayride at Vintondale Homecoming
Jonal entry 1069 | September 3 2008
I've been anxious to get videos of the Vintondale Homecoming, August 30 and 31, on the site, but between jet lag and the always unanticipated busy-ness of a vacation visit "back home," it hasn't been feasible to get anything published on the day it occurred or, as it has turned out, the day after. This is already three days after, and I have only this short video processed. It's a two-minute, forty-eight-second record of my hay ride on Saturday, August 30, the first day of the homecoming festival. I thought this Amish-horse-drawn wagon from the event grounds up to the Ghost Town Trail near the bridge in town and on to the soccer field and back was as colorful as any I've shot, though it is not as representative of the homecoming as a whole as others waiting to be edited and published. Besides my own clips, Judy Rose is also processing some excellent short interview clips she collected at the event.
I'm not sure about "jet lag," maybe it's just the sleeplessness typical of advancing age, but it seems I haven't had more than six hours of sleep out of any 24 in the past week.
But on the plus side, I have moved out of the motel mentioned in last week's Jonal and into the Murphy Inn, at the top of the Alleghenies at Richland Township, just across from the area's only Starbucks, which I had been spending much of my time here keeping up with emails and the news by way of the free wifi available at the coffeehouse. And once I made the transition from downtown to Richland, I learned that the Murphy Inn (which is as good if not better bargain than the motel I'd been using) has in-room free wifi. So I can work in my room and not have to get overly caffeinated in the process.
So far as I can recall, Saturday's wagon ride was the first hay ride I was ever on in my 66 years. The youth of the Belsano church I grew up in seemed to go to hay rides at least once a year, but I was too young then. And last year there were similar hay rides offered at the homecoming, but my impression was it was for the children, but since no children were getting on the wagon on Saturday and some adults were, I thought it a good time to get some picturesque (if sometimes bouncy) video.
During the recording of this video, the weather changed, as noted in it, and ever since it has been perfect for a visit in Cambria County, Pa.
I hope to get a longer video ready to publish this weekend, as a Video Jonal on the Glo Tube page, as on Friday brother Bob and I will be making our way by rental car to Indiana state.
Funny Bones
Heading down the interstate, our car passed through a huge swarm of gnats so dense that their bodies made popping noises as they hit the windshield.
"I can't get over how loud they are," my wife said.
"Well, we are hitting them at 65 miles an hour," I pointed out. Her reply left me speechless.
"There's no way bugs can fly that fast!"
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My father was a dentist and my mother was a manicurist... for most of their married life they fought tooth and nail.
Thought for today
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— C. S. Lewis (1898 - 1963)
Jon
Kennedy's latest book is The Everything Guide to
C.S. Lewis and Narnia, now in stores, from Adams Media, F&W Publications.
From May 9, 2007 through July 2, 2008 his blog entries or "Jonals" were
articles inspired by readings in Lewis's work that didn't fit into the book.
Click here
for a list of all articles in the C.S. Lewis Overflow series. The book is
available for purchase in support of the Liberty Museum in Nanty Glo and is also
available on Amazon.
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