Musings
an Online Journal of Sorts

By Alyce Wilson

My sister and her fiancé left my dad's early on Sunday morning because he had to work.

The Gryphon and I took showers and then headed out to the local mall, so that he could use the gift certificate I'd bought him at Waldenbooks for his birthday.

He also got himself a new video game, Star Ocean 3: 'Til the End of Time,which he's been waiting to buy for awhile now.

When we got back, Dad was already back from doing his rounds. The three of us drove down to a multicultural Festival of Nations that was taking place the entire weekend. My dad had been really excited about it, talking it up for weeks. We were originally going to go on Saturday, but Mom has bad knees and can't do a lot of walking, and Saturday was my sister's only day to spend time with the family.

The first thing we saw were some Filipino dancers who did a number of different traditional dances. They had dozens of costume changes and were very professional. The most impressive dance involved lightly skipping over bamboo poles as other dancers slammed the poles together in rhythm. The dance got faster and faster, which was amazing to watch.

I was also fascinated by the blend of cultures evident: from Spanish-influenced dances to distinctly Asian ones. I took pictures until my battery died (should have charged it the night before!).

The next group on-stage was from Harrisburg. They were doing a martial arts exhibition which was supposedly an African martial art. Of course, it was actually a combination of various Asian martial arts styles, with an underlying African spirituality. It combined a lot of Judo and Aikido moves. Even the children were really impressive: jumping over poles and doing rolls and complicated combinations.

Afterwards, I told the instructor how good I thought they were, telling him I'd taken a little martial arts myself. Surprisingly, the big, beefy guy had a very mild, soft voice and a very gentle manner.

We were starting to get hungry, so we walked around. On the way, we went through the vendors' tent. Mom having given me some birthday money to spend, I went a little nuts. I got two bottles of wine from a local winery, some Pennsylvania maple syrup, a mix to make beer bread. I guess I shouldn't have gone through there while I was hungry. I also bought an embroidered shirt from Ecuador, a white shirt with purple embroidery.

We passed an empty stage and ran into a woman on stilts dressed like Carmen Miranda who called herself Carmen Banana. She joked around with us for a bit, guessing that I was somebody famous: "A dancer? A singer? A princess!"

"Yes, you're right. A princess," I said with a smile.

She told us there was a juggling act starting on that stage in a few minutes, but we didn't make it back in time for that.

Instead, we went to the food court, where we got some Mexican food and sat under a tent and listened to an Irish folk band. They were followed by some Puerto Rican dancers, and we moved closer to watch them better. These dancers were kids and had apparently not done as much rehearsing as the Filipino dancers had. They weren't in sync and kept making mistakes, but they were smiling and having a great time. We applauded.

Then we walked over to a special NASA exhibit which Dad was keen to see. This was a traveling trailer that had inside displays on what space flight might be like in 2040. They had lots of silver doodads and buttons to push, but there wasn't a whole lot of explanation of what you were seeing.

One man was traveling with the display and told us they were hoping to get another space shuttle launched in March. He told us about all the new improvements they've made for safety, including a robot arm that will allow them to check and repair tiles before landing.

Afterwards, we checked out a pine modular model home. The most interesting thing were the pictures showing how they put these modular homes together, lowering sections down with cranes.

We returned to the main stage then and watched an Appalachian folk group doing clog dancing. By this time, it was starting to get cold. The Gryphon and I knew we had a three and a half hour drive ahead of us, so we left.

On Labor Day itself, Monday, I had a lot of extra work. The Gryphon wasn't working, though, so he hung out at my place playing his new video game. Then we went out to dinner when I had a break.

All in all, a fun weekend.

More from Labor Day weekend:

September 7, 2004 - Picture Perfect Picnic

Copyright 2004 by Alyce Wilson

Musings Index

What do you think? Share your thoughts
at Alyce's message board (left button):