Scenic Manor Sing and Picnic

Last Sunday my family and I sang at Scenic Manor, one of our favorite nursing homes, on their special event day.  The event also featured a hymn sing, 2 other groups, dinner, and games for children. It is attended by residents of the home, their family members, and locals.

I enjoyed singing and the crowd was a pleasant audience.  Unfortunately though, my shoulders, arms, and fingers have been programmed to hold a guitar for the duration of a 45 minute concert, so by the time our hour was up they were fatigued; my strings were starting to dig into my fingers with every chord...evidently I need more practice!

Next up was Sugar and Spice, an old time country and gospel duo (pictured above).  I hadn't had the opportunity to listen to them in a while, so I was happy to hear them sing again.   I especially enjoyed their gospel picks.

Joan sang her beautiful rendition of Coat of Many Colors by Dolly Parton; it's a very thought-provoking song that tells how love, not money, makes a person rich.  Phil sang Long Black Train on request; it's one of our favorites...who doesn't like train songs?  This one tells about how the world--the long black train--can be so alluring, but we should avoid it at all costs.  

While Sugar and Spice sang I enjoyed my share of smoothies and root beer and ate a funnel cake in my attempt to recuperate from our performance.  Volunteering at the event were three identical red-headed triplets, 2 of whom are pictured above with another volunteer. 

There was an impressive selection of pies on hand...decisions, decisions!

Thankfully no rules limited me to one slice, so I got to try both apple and blackberry during the course of the afternoon.  They were both delicious!    

Inside was a display of quilts and quilt blocks.  Obviously we have some talented quilters in our vicinity!

Kettle corn, watermelon, pickles, lemonade, and bottled water were all freely available and there were games for children.

After Sugar and Spice sang, we helped the chaplain with the hymn sing, and then settled down to listen to the last group of the day, Home.

They had 2 guitarists, a pianist, and a drummer; the pianist and drummer also played trumpets.  Their music was deafeningly loud to start with, but thankfully they turned the volume down.  I liked their rendition of quite a few gospel songs but didn't enjoy their secular songs very much at all.  They are talented musicians, but they could do better on their song selection.

Part of the audience is pictured above.

While Home was singing we got in line for our dinner.  Fresh sweet corn, potato chips, and pork burgers were served.

The sweet corn was brought in two grocery carts and cooked in the kettles pictured on the left.  The Iowa Pork Producers cooked the pork burgers in the contraption shown on the right.  It was interesting watching them flip all the pork patties by just turning a handle!  In all they cooked 420 burgers!

I decided to be a vegetarian for the day and just enjoy the sweet corn.  Phil noticed that it was interesting how some of us (like me) ate like typewriters (in rows from one end to the other) and others, himself included, ate around the cob.  I had never noticed that before, but from now on I'm going to be watching my fellow sweet corn eaters!  

Thanks to the Scenic Manor staff for blessing us with good food and a pleasant afternoon, and thanks to the Lord for giving us such nice weather for our concert!

What do you think is the most efficient method of eating sweetcorn?