How long have we all been finding ways around the rules?
SCHOHARIE — The Old Men of the Mountain met at the Your Way Café in Schoharie on March 4 with gray skies and temperatures climbing into the upper 40s. Tomorrow it may reach 50 degrees while it rains most of the day.
Every day that it doesn't snow is a good day at this stage of the winter. I have even heard from some of our OFs in Florida talking about returning soon. I had a couple of red-wing blackbirds at my feeders this weekend. That's a good sign. No robins yet.
We enjoyed the return of one of our OFs who didn't fly south but has been away for a while. Sometimes, when the snow and ice and zero-degree temperatures and darkness and the wind and Father Time all kind of combine to tell us something that sounds a lot like, “Hey OMOTM, this just might be a good time to stay home for a while,” we should listen.
We didn’t arrive at this stage in our journey just to slip and fall and break a hip or catch the flu or COVID. Or, should we say, let the flu or COVID catch us. Just last week, I mentioned one of our OFs was back after he had slipped on the ice and broke his leg. It happens so fast.
Remember a couple weeks ago when I was considering asking a younger OF to pick me up and drive to the OMOTM breakfast because of the ice and snow in my driveway? Well, a package was delivered to my house this weekend and I went to pick it up.
I took one step on that icy driveway and down I went down in a flash, and I knew that ice was there! It just takes a little longer for some of us to learn things. I learned two things: Ice can be really slippery and it is hard!
A fun story overheard at one of the tables was about one of our OFs who was in the hospital as a kid. He was recounting the story of the food being served.
He said the food was all right; it was just that he didn’t like some of it, like spinach. He also said, if you wanted seconds, you first had to eat everything on your plate. That sound familiar to anyone?
Well, he said there was one overweight kid there that liked everything. So our OF, and others, would give him the food they didn’t like and then present their clean plates for seconds of what they did like.
How long have we all been finding ways around the rules? From hiding the peas under the lip of our plates at home to fooling the hospital with our clean plates?
A long time, I suspect, for all of us in one form or another, and no, I will not give out any personal examples. However, if any OF wishes to confess to a thing or two, you know where I sit on any given Tuesday.
Fat Tuesday
March 4 was also Fat Tuesday, otherwise known as Mardi Gras. Mardi Gras is the French name for the festive day celebrated in France on Shrove Tuesday, which is the Tuesday before Ash Wednesday, which marks the close of the pre-Lenten carnival season.
The “fat” comes from the custom of using all the fats in the home before Lent in preparation for fasting and abstinence. Mardi Gras is a Christian tradition celebrated worldwide with the first celebration in America taking place in Mobile, Alabama in 1703.
It wasn't until 1831 that it really heated up and got going. New Orleans is the place to be for the biggest celebration in the United States today. Although it is still a huge event in Mobile with dozens of parades and balls every year.
Mr. Google also told me about the beads. There are three colors: gold, green, and purple. They represent power, faith, and justice and are commonly distributed throughout the carnival, usually tossed from the floats.
A special kind of cake is consumed during the carnival. It is called a king cake. It is circular, sweet, and there is a gift of a small toy or a tiny plastic baby Jesus hidden inside. Whoever finds this gift inside their piece of king cake officially becomes “King for a Day” and must also supply the season’s next king cake, or host the next party!
In addition, I learned about the masks that are worn. Wearing masks is a traditional part of Mardi Gras. There are several reasons people wear these masks. Not at all surprising, is that some of those reasons have their roots in religion.
Originally, masks were also worn so that people of all classes could mingle freely. The servants, employees, slaves, everyone, had the day off to celebrate. Everyone was equal behind those masks. Cool idea.
The three classes of OMOTM (old, older, oldest) present on Tuesday and not wearing masks while enjoying breakfast at the Your Way Café in Schoharie were Harold Guest, Wally Guest, Ed Goff, Glenn Patterson, Mark Traver, Joe Rack, Miner Stevens, Frank A. Fuss, Roland Tozer, Marty Herzog, Wm Lichliter, George Washburn, Warren Willsey, Russ Pokorny, Jim Gardner, Pastor Jay Francis, Gary Burghoff, Jamey Darrah, Jack Norray, Gerry Cross, Dick Dexter, John Jazz, Henry Whipple, Lou Schenck, Herb Bahrmann, Bob Donnelly, Dave Hodgetts, John Dab, Paul Guiton, Dave Wood, and me.