How Bizaar

Are you kidding me look at that background. It's like a Springsteen song.

The magnitude of some events in our lives cannot be written about immediately. We must take time to reflect upon their perplexities and review their outcomes. That said I believe I have now fully digested the events of last weekends Feast of Our Lady of Mt. Carmel, or the Bizaar, and I am prepared to put them into words.

First let me explain that the Feast has been one of the highlights of my summer for as long as I can remember. Perhaps next year I will do a Bizaar memories series leading up to Feast Weekend. However, until midday Saturday I wasn't sure if I would be going. Karen was taking her Registry Test for Radiologic Technologists, or in Hogwarts terms her O.W.L.s. Since obviously this was the end of a very stressful day, week, month, and 4 years she was going out with or without me and that was cool. But man did I want to get to that Feast. Mattingly ended up staying at a friends house and I was excited because I knew I hadn't bought my Feast outfit in vain.

I dropped Karen off at Laura's and went on to pick up Jay B. We headed up to the grounds and immediately found the beer garden, where we stayed for the better part of the night. The other frequented place being inside the Community Center where there's gambling and beer as well. Now there's gambling outside too, but those games are more geared towards getting Ashtabula youth addicted to gaming so they can later graduate to the inside games of chance. It also made me proud to think my nephew is just a few years away from trying to sneak a few beers, just kidding, now that there are designated areas for drinking it's not quite as easy to consume underage as it was in the past. Like back in the days when a certain Mt. Carmel celeb used to run a special buy 2 get the third beer free special for a few of my friends and me.

The girls waiting for the rain to let up.

It was a great time Saturday night, we ended it with being the last people on the grounds about an hour after everyone had left. It was pouring down rain and we were sitting under the canopy in the beer garden. During this waiting period there was a good chance you could see 2 cigarettes being shared amongst 8 different people. When it finally let up a little we headed to the Crows Nest.

This was where my night of drinking was supposed to end because I had to work Sunday. Nevertheless, beers are hard to pass up when they are being bought for you. Besides as I told Jay earlier, stopping drinking is not my strong suit. I can not drink, I can go home and keep drinking, I can drink a glass of ice water for every beer, BUT being out drinking and stopping while still staying out is not something that comes easily. Made even more difficult by the fact that I was having such a good time on a great night. It's okay though, I felt fine in the morning and made it to work without any trouble.

The time at the Nest also included my drunk ass bailing out a guy I've never met who was karaoke-ing Detroit Rock City, he was struggling and kept putting the mic in peoples faces, so I just kinda took over. Later Laura decided it would be a good idea for him and I to share the stage once again for Born to Run. Not to brag, but we brought down the house, or we would have if anyone was paying attention.

After work Sunday, we took Mattie back to eat, ride rides, and watch fireworks. During which time I found sufficient time to get my drink back on in the Beer Garden. Sunday was cool because all of the guys I used to go with were there with their families, such as Silva, Narducci, Paulchel and plenty of others.

Camera phone shot of partial crowd Sunday Night.

On a side note, I know the rain hurts the Feast's bottom line, but man does it was away the undesirables quickly. Jay and I were talking and remembering when summers consisted of a Feast for not only Mt. Carmel, but also St. Joe's and Mother of Sorrows. There was also Harbor Days on Bridge Street, and Dog Days on Main Ave. The Blessing of the Fleet was a bigger deal and of course there was the County Fair. These undesirables have lead to the extinction of all these other summer events. So any time they are prevented from soiling my Bizaar, I am happy.

****Up next-25 year reunion for St. John class of 1982. I will be in attendance as a makeshift DJ...with camera. Here's a picture of Mark O and The Jerk going through an old yearbook trying to figure out who still hates them.