Perspective

There was some discussion in the Tally-ho household recently about whether a certain R-rated movie was suitable for the middle-school Young Relative. My first reaction was that I didn't want him to be exposed to the very questionable material, attitudes and language.
But then I remembered when I was his age, and the book "The Godfather" by Mario Puzo was all the rage in my class.
Did it contain violence? Yes, graphic and extreme. Racism? Yep. Cursing? Bloody well right. Irresponsible drug and alcohol use and other bad choices? For sure. Sex? Oh, my, yes. The one kid who had a paperback copy passed it around surreptitiously and, not surprisingly, it automatically opened right to the dog-eared page 29, the scene in which Sonny Corleone gets friendly with his sister's maid of honor.
So imagine my surprise as a seventh-grader when my mother -- my MOTHER! -- bought me a copy of "The Godfather" at the used-book store. I had horrible images of her discovering some of the naughty material in it and thinking I had tried to pull one over on her by expressing interest in it.
I thought I'd better take the bull by the horns.
"Mom," I said, with considerable embarrassment. "There's some kind of, um, adult stuff in this book."
"I know," she said matter-of-factly. "I thought you were mature enough to handle it."
Forty years later I remember those words with pride. And I still have my copy of the book. "Soon to be a major motion picture from Paramount," it says on the back cover.
(Oh, and the kid who passed around the book in our class? He went on to become a Secretary of Education for Pennsylvania.)

Chicken salad

Just a reminder that Philter serves a very good lunch -- in addition to their coffee and tea offerings. I met a friend there on Wednesday to catch up on Unionville news and gossip and we had their wonderful curried chicken salad with currants. They offer several varieties of chicken salad, and all of them are delicious. Their green iced tea is wonderfully different, too. Philter is at 111 West State Street in downtown Kennett.

Safety first

The perils of running, and attending, a hugely popular but weather-dependent event!
The Chester County Hot Air Balloon Festival was held at Plantation Field, at Route 82 and Green Valley Road, on June 13 and 14. The organizers had to cancel the first day's activities due to bad weather and soft grounds, and then on the second day the scheduled evening launch ("mass ascension") was cancelled at about 6 p.m. because the strong winds posed a safety risk.
Meanwhile, the hordes of people trying to get into the field on Saturday afternoon (admission was $10 per car) created a traffic jam on Route 82 that stretched all the way back to the Unionville roundabout. One woman I spoke to traveled from Lionville to meet friends at the event but got stuck in the gridlock for more than an hour; she and her boyfriend had to cut their losses and turn around because they had another event to attend. She said the person she was supposed to meet is more familiar with Unionville's back roads; wisely, he took Route 162 and then Powell Road, turning on to Green Valley Road from the north. Another friend of hers managed to get to the event but, because of the launch cancellation, she summarized the day as "essentially, a $15 funnel cake."
(I'm told the food vendors at the event had a field day, and some even ran out of food and drink.)
Nobody was second-guessing the decision to cancel the launch, but I did hear some suggestions that maybe the event's traffic management could use some tweaks.
The organizers alerted people to the cancellation on Facebook by saying, "Mother Nature is just not cooperating ... Wanted to get the word out to those waiting in traffic so you can decide if you still want to come. Thank you for your patience. We are as disappointed as you. To those already here. Thank you. Your $10 is going to a good cause!"
(According to the event's website, the beneficiaries are Downingtown West Wrestling, The Garage youth and community programs, and Plantation Field Horse Trials.)

Screening

A friend who is a frequent movie-goer gives two thumbs up to the newly reopened Painters Crossing AMC movie theater. She and her family paid extra to sit in the special lounge-chair section during a screening of "Edge of Tomorrow," the new Tom Cruise action movie. She said the seats were wonderfully comfortable and the in-theater food service greatly enhanced the whole theater experience.

A pint of Tilda

Like the reformed Ebenezer Scrooge, the American Red Cross has been as good as its word. After I complained on Facebook about the almost daily messages I was getting from their telemarketers, they struck my phone number AND e-mail address from their rolls. In fact, and to their credit, they didn't even send me a reminder that I was signed up to donate at today's blood drive at the Episcopal Church of the Advent. (Yes, I remembered to go anyway.)

Let's get along

Over the weekend I mentioned on my Facebook page that some littering bicyclists were leaving trash along my road-- and oh, what a firestorm of cyclist-directed venom I unleashed, even from normally circumspect and even-tempered people! As in so many situations, it seems that because of some offenders, a whole class of people gets tarred with the same brush.
I hesitate to criticize anyone who is out there getting exercise, but in the interests of promoting harmony on the roads, might I suggest that cyclists (a) ride in single file rather than taking up a entire lane and (b) not litter under any circumstances? And motorists, please remember the "four-foot law" that I mentioned a few weeks ago. Thank you.

Used books

Here's a shout-out to the good folks at the Kennett Area Senior Center's used-book store at 113 South Union Street in Kennett Square. I saw the always-enthusiastic bookstore manager, Harry Wackerman, having corn fritter pancakes for dinner at Hood's tonight, and he came over and told us that the volunteers at the store are all loyal "Unionville in the News" readers. Very much appreciated!

At the movies

Thank you to the Young Relative for letting me know that the Painter's Crossing AMC movie theater has reopened, complete with "Fork & Screen" in-theater food service (there are age restrictions) and a special "Cinema Suites" area with reclining chairs (you pay extra for that). It has been closed since late winter for renovations. He also highly recommends "Godzilla," which, it seems, is a far cry from the cheesy, low-tech monster movies we remember from our youth.

Underground Railroad tours

Michele Sullivan, a board member of the Kennett Underground Railroad Center, sent me an email with information about the group's summer bus tours of local Underground Railroad sites. The Kennett area was an important way-station for slaves on the road to freedom, and the tours, which are led by volunteers, include several original abolitionist houses; the first street in Kennett, where descendants of abolitionists still live; and an 1801 Quaker Meetinghouse.
Tour dates are June 29, July 27, and August 24. The two-hour tours start at 2 p.m. at the Brandywine Valley Conference and Tourist Center, 300 Greenwood Rd., Kennett Square. Tickets are $20 for adults, $15 for children (the fee is charged just to cover the cost of bus rental). Advance registration is required; checks should be written to the Kennett Underground Railroad Center (KURC) and sent to 296 Kendal Dr., Kennett Square, PA 19348. Please include your email address and phone number.

This too shall pass

The Cranky Friend has had a kidney stone this past week, which would provide ample justification for his normally sour mood. But to his credit, he has been taking it in stride (opioids and a naturally high pain threshold are helping) and even finding some wry amusement in the trying experience.
For instance: To encourage the stone to pass, his doctor ordered him to drink three liters of water a day. Trying to envision how much that was, the Friend immediately pictured a three-liter jug of wine.
"Three liters!" he exclaimed. "If you drank three liters of wine you'd be pretty looped!"
The doctor gave him a small smile.
"No," he said. "You don't want to hydrate with wine."
The Friend said people have been phoning all week, clamoring for updates on the stone's journey through his system. He said that our interest reminded him of nothing more than the breathless, nonstop news coverage devoted to John Glenn's Mercury space flight.

Music in the Orchard

There were just too many choices for what to do on this past Saturday night: the Balloon Fest at Plantation Field; a history talk at London Grove Meeting; a concert by the Holmes Brothers in Media; "women's music" icon Holly Near in Bryn Mawr; not to mention a pre-Father's Day family event. What to do? Our choice was to head west to the 1719 Hans Herr House in Willow Street, Lancaster County, for an outdoor concert in their apple orchard.
The opening act was two young women, one on percussion and one on guitar and mandolin, who are part of the folk/bluegrass/blues group Indian Summer Jars from York. They said they'd had a busy day: they'd already played one concert in Mechanicsburg and ran a 5K in Harrisburg!
The group Sopa Sol was Frances Miller on violin and Daryl Snider on guitar, with one of Frances's students joining them on violin for "Wayfaring Stranger" and "The Devil Went Down to Georgia." Frances also played an unusual instrument called a hang drum that looked like a wok and sounded like a steel drum. She and her husband own a dairy farm in Quarryville, Fiddle Creek Dairy, and she said she learned early on that when you marry a dairy farmer you marry not only him but also his cows.
The concert was very informal--you bring your own chairs or blanket--and drew everyone from hippies to bikers to older folks with their grandkids. Adorable kids were running around in the area in front of the stage. One young boy got a little too close to the stage and, while jumping up and down, accidentally dislodged a cable for the sound system.
"This is what I love about live music," said my companion. "Singers forget the words. Cables come unplugged. Keepin' it real!"
People either brought picnics or bought food from the onsite vendor, OCB Cakes, which is a bakery and coffee shop in Strasburg. We bought a very tasty pulled pork sandwich and a loaf of Old Bay-seasoned bread with crab dip. They also offered veggie kebabs, sticky buns, whoopee pies and ice cream.
During the 20-minute intermission we walked around the grounds of the historic site and admired the fenced-in vegetable/herb garden, the actual Hans Herr house, and a replica of a Native American longhouse (the outside surface is made of sheets of textured rubber that really look like bark).
It got pretty chilly as the sun went down toward the end of the show. People were wrapping blankets around themselves, and I was glad I packed a pair of socks. The guy in front of us turned up the collar of his madras shirt to try to keep his neck warm.
This show marked the start of the third season of concerts in the orchard. Four additional shows are on the schedule on June 28, July 12, July 26 and Aug. 9. We'll be back! (Oh, and it's a lovely drive out to Willow Street, which is just south of Lancaster.)