Rutabaga 2014

Once a year in the small town of Cumberland, WI they have the Rutabaga festival. It's just a carnival with a parade on Sunday and a beer garden with live music every night for the weekend. Last weekend was Rutabaga weekend, and my family has been going for as long as I can remember. My mom's grandma lived in Cumberland, and she's been going since she was a kid. My mom is a McCoy. She's 50/50 Irish/Italian. Her grandma Ficocello lived there, and a few Ficocellos still do.

Rutabaga weekend is bitter sweet. It used to be the last full weekend before school started, and I went through that period. Now it means that summer is over and it's time to get ready for fall. Sweet because football season is right around the corner, but bitter because where has summer gone?! We camp at the campground in town on Beaver Dam Lake. My uncle Rich calls every New Year's Day and reserves spots for August. This year he couldn't get as many spots, so there were fewer McCoys in attendance.

I knew that I wanted to stay Friday night, but the camp sites were sold out. There are two hotels a few blocks from camp, and I reserved a room at The Ambrose. It looks like it has a lot of character, and there are stories of my parents staying there before I was born. I've never heard the full story, but I know my dad was singing Jesus Christ Superstar in his room so loud that management had to tell him to knock it off.

The Ambrose

I was able to get Friday off work, so I went up alone Friday morning. About 5 miles from Cumberland is a small town with a cheese shop where I've been getting snack packs of cheese cubes and meat since I was old enough to have my own money. I got one as I passed through. On the way to the campground I stopped for lunch at the fair. A KC Special, which is a hamburger with hot peppers, and cheese curds. I ate faster than I wanted to, but I wanted to get to camp to see who was already there. 

At camp I got to see my cousins, my Godparents, and Rich, who is camp director. I hung out there until I thought I could check into my room. When I got to The Ambrose there was a sign posted on the door saying that people need to check in at the nicer hotel across the street. When I got there the guy offered me a cancellation he just got in the nicer place for $12 more, so I took it. The nicer place hadz an ice machine for my cooler, and a continental breakfast. (It also had FXX and I could watch The Simpsons marathon for the short time I was in the room)

Campground

I went back to camp and the cousins were ready to go to the bar. Cumberland is only about four blocks long, but there are six bars. I've spent many hours inside each of them in my day, and I've had my fair share of rides into and from town. I was happy to give back to the younger generation. We went to the first bar on the strip, Skiddies. 

After staying there for a few, it was back to camp to play bags as a few more people arrived. We had a dinner at camp of walking tacos. Griffin pulled out his guitar by the fire at night and we rocked out. I noticed an older hippie-looking couple standing on the outskirts of our site watching Griffin play. They said they were enjoying the music. I invited then over; all are welcome. The guy had white hair to his shoulders, and introduced himself as Skunk-the-man without irony. They only stayed for a few minutes. 

I went back to the fair alone to see if there were any prizes I could try to win for Ozzie. The fair was really dead for Friday night. The weather was overcast, but not raining. The prizes to win were all junky, so I just did a quick pass through the carnival. I remember as a kid, all I wanted was one of those little square mirrors with Hulk Hogan, or Aerosmith on them. I didn't realize until I was older that they were cocaine mirrors. 

I took the cousins back to Skiddies later that night, and it was dead as a doornail. They had one drink and we went back to the fire where we spent the rest of the evening. I introduced the game Two Truths and a Lie that we played around the fire. People slowly went to bed, and I stayed up with John, Griffin and Jared until 3:15. Back at my hotel I fell asleep to The Simpsons. 

The next day Megan and Ozzie came up. Shalane and Billy also came up for the day with Vinnie. We had our family lunch of rigatoni. Saturday is the day of the bags tournament. As it was under way, Megan sat with Ozzie at the other spot away from the noise and fire. It was hot and muggy. After I watched the championship game I went to check on them and Megan was packing up her car. Ozzie fell asleep in his stroller and he was all sweaty. Wading in the lake earlier was only a temporary solution to overheating. 

As the egg toss was happening, I went and tossed my shoes over the electric wire. It's a tradition I tried to start 4-5 years ago. I've been doing it every year, and I'm the only one. I don't care. I think a pair of shoes hanging from a wire looks cool, and I always have an old pair that I can get rid of. My brother (who came up just for the day too) drove me around with the AC blasted to help my fatigue. He showed my the cemetery that I never knew about where a lot of Ficocellos are. 

It was about 7:00 and Megan had already made it home. She texted asking if I wanted pizza, and I did, so I said my goodbyes and headed home. Rutabagas past have seen trips to the hospital, near-arrests, and minor consumption tickets. This year was comparatively quiet. That's a good thing for the offenders, but no real juicy stories to tell. Just a good time spent with friends, family, and Skunk-the-man.