Monday, May 25, 2015 – Happy Memorial Day! My friend M’Lou Thompson put the following statement on Facebook this morning. She said it so eloquently that I want to share here:
On this Memorial Day, as I enjoy and appreciate seeing the pictures of husbands, fathers, uncles, etc., posted of handsome young men in uniforms, it occurs to me that we always see these soldiers smiling and looking directly into cameras, and we forget for the moment, or even dismiss, that those cameras show us nothing of their actual sacrifice–the physical and emotional pain, the scars that never heal, and of course for some, the loss of a precious life. We owe them so much!
We spent our Memorial Day enjoying the Oklahoma Renaissance Festival at Muskogee, Oklahoma about 40 minutes north of our RV park. Since 1996, the festival features over 90 artisans and merchants, you can dine on renaissance fare, and interact with scores of dashing nobles, peasants, and regal knights. From the village to the king’s royal castle to the magical depths of the Enchanted Forest, there are dozens of locations throughout the Castle’s Kingdom for visitors to explore and enjoy. The festival is held on weekends in May and Memorial Day.
A very well constructed and planned event. Around every corner were small structures with all manner of craft demonstrated and sold, resting places, entertainment from olden times, and renaissance related food. Since it rained continually for the last few days the walking areas were damp but the sun shone the whole time we were there (an amazing thing right there) and the thousands of people attending the festival all seemed to have a great time.
It’s surprising to see the large percentage of visitors wearing renaissance period clothing. Several of the small structures sold men’s and women’s clothing, corsets (!!), hats, chains and anything you’d need to dress like they did. This was their 20th annual event and it clearly has grown into a well oiled production. They even had people just sitting throughout talking in the old way of talking and visiting with whomever would talk to them. One man had Roy and I individually sit with him while he made up a song using our name!
When we stopped for lunch I ordered a Rat on a Stick and Roy got a sandwich with an odd name. The Rat on a Stick was polish sausage hand wrapped in garlic fry bread. Yum! I saw folks walking around with fried turkey legs and lots of old time beer steins all around!
I’d highly recommend this festival to anyone in the area in the month of May each year. It’s on N Fern Mountain Road in Muskogee, OK. Here’s several pictures of what all we saw today. A wonderful family event for families of all ages.
Well that was our Memorial Day adventure! We are hoping for a good weather day tomorrow as we are going into Tulsa to see what’s there!!! Ya’ll come back now, ya’ hear!!
Click on the links below to go there!
Wacky Wonderful Wednesdays published on Wednesdays
Some Things I Learned About Dementia published randomly
BECAUSE HE LIVES 