Ozark Vacation: County Fair, Fishy Goings-On, and Mr. Scott's Farm

Sun-Ae and the kids are in such a whirl of activities as the vacation time nears its end that I'm having difficulty keeping up, so I'll try to catch up on some of it now. Sun-Ae sent this message a couple of days ago:

It's around 10 in the night, just before going to bed, I'll try to send you some pictures that have accumulated in the last few days: Photos . . . from the visit to the County Fair [first].

Yes, it's only fair to start with the fair, which comes with local agricultural products, a rodeo, some thrilling rides, and a few rip-off games. Here stand Sa-Rah and En-Uk with shelves of local vegetables:


Aren't they thrilled! Next comes some local artwork:


"Hmmm . . ." they muse. "What is this artist telling us about the human condition." Obviously, the artist was telling them to go out for more exercise, and maybe see the rodeo:


Sa-Rah and En-Uk approach the rodeo stands . . . but don't seem to have seen much, for the next images come from the thrilling rides:


That certainly looks thrilling!


And it leaves Aunt Sandy and Sa-Rah dizzy, but they don't give up:


Dauntless, the two wave at us as they ready themselve to ride again. And Sa-Rah, now fully acclimated, prepares to ride with En-Uk as they flash a premature victory sign:


Despite the 'victory' sign, but we don't see how this ride turned out. At some point, they tire of the rides and turn instead to the rip-off games:


Sa-Rah tries her 'skillful' hand first.


En-Uk then tries his luck.


And wins the gold . . . fish. Great. Another mouth to feed.


But En-Uk quickly finds some local 'green' food for the fish. Speaking of food and fish, the next day brought something tasty as Uncle Clarence treated Sun-Ae and the kids to the fish that they had caught earlier in their vacation:

We had lunch at Uncle Clarence's and dinner at Tim's. Uncle Clarence was very professional in cooking fish. He had equipment for frying fish and went through all the trouble to treat us with really tasty deep-fried fish that I have never had [before]. It was really good. Probably, I ate 4 of them.

Let's see how professional:


Uncle Clarence prepares himself mentally. Note his intense concentration and focus, reminiscent of Tiger Woods.


He checks the oil temperature . . .


Adds the fish . . .


Fish frying . . .


Removing the fried fish . . .


Fish fried! But wait . . . there's more:


Yes, the proverbial "Hush Puppies!" Odd name for food, I know, but like that old Winston cigarette commercial used to say, "What do you want, good grammar . . . or good taste?" Well, I suppose good grammar is in good taste . . . and so are good semantics. There's undoubtedly an etymological background to the name "hush puppies," and if any readers can enlighten us, we'd all be very grateful. Meanwhile, mealtime is approaching:

Aunt Ava Jo prepared some potato, coleslaw, and peach cobbler with ice cream (I wrote down the recipe for cobbler and will make some for you when I come home). Hush puppies were also fried [as we've just seen], and I like them a lot. Anyway, we had a good meal.

Here are images of Aunt Ava Jo preparing the meal and of everyone digging in:




Afterwards, Sun-Ae and the kids go with Cousin Sara:

After visiting Uncle Clarence's house, we dropped by at Sara's apartment where they played with her dog a little while.

Let's see this dog:


An underdog -- humble and lovable! After visiting with Cousin Sara and the cute dog, Sun-Ae and the kids go to the house that I grew up in:


Uncle Tim and his family now live there. Aunt Donna fixes a scrumptious evening meal:

In the evening, we had another nice meal at Tim's. Donna baked salmon and plapika [paprika?] with lemon and onion along with broiled squash and asparagus, which was all very tasty. Although I had two big nice meals, I feel fine because they were all fish!

Again, let's take a look:


Looks delicious, and I missed out on all this food. But with no thought of me, Sun-Ae is already making more plans and lamenting the little time remaining on their vacation:

Tomorrow morning, Mr. Scott will come at 9 to pick up the kids. I'll stay here to finish my paper. In the afternoon, we will drive to meet Denny's family. Anyway, the next days before we leave are all scheduled. I cannot believe that we're leaving soon. Somehow, it's strange, maybe I unconsciously want to stay here longer. This summer, we were really lucky with the weather. I didn't have any problem with the heat.

We could waste time lamenting their short vacation, but let's instead check out Mr. Scott's time with the kids the next day. Mr. Scott, as some readers may recall, was my high school math teacher -- and I worked for him one summer on his surveying crew -- but he's also a former rodeo bareback rider and a farmer (as well as gifted in art and music). Sun-Ae tells me:

As you know, I didn't go to Mr. Scott's place with kids. So Sa-Rah took most of the photos except one with Sa-Rah with a horse that Mr. Scott took.

Well, let's take a look at these photos:


Mr. Scott brings his truck to pick the kids up at Uncle John's place . . . or possibly later, upon their arrival at his farm.


Anyway, once at Mr. Scott's farm, they clear away some fallen limbs . . . perhaps left over from last winter's ice storm.


But the ice is long gone, and a living world needs food. Here, Mr. Scott is feeding a young horse.


Sa-Rah later stands beside the same horse.


En-Uk, meanwhile, is checking out the pond algae.


Skeptical, he says, "You want me to swim in that!" But there was no time that morning for swimming, thankfully, for they all three had to return soon for lunch prepared by Sun-Ae:

They had fun, and when they came back a little after noon, Mr. Scott said that they were good kids and that he can take them for a couple of weeks or some days. I had the impression that he liked having them around. I invited him to lunch that I had prepared, a kind of goulash dish with brown rice. It was a simple meal because I didn't have much time, but he liked it, and over the meal, we had a good conversation for over an hour. He still has a very sharp and precise mind and can talk for long, I think.

After that meal, Sun-Ae and the kids had to get ready for a swimming party with Denny Elrod and his family, but I'll post on that when Denny sends the photos to go with the ones that Sun-Ae took.

Gypsy Scholar over and out . . . for today.