You can't see it from this angle, but she had a red circle painted around one of her eyes. There were little bowls of paint and children were brushing it on their hands and then "painting" the horse. It was very cute but I sort of felt bad for the little horse. But I imagine the nice, warm bath that she undoubtedly got after the show was worth it.
We wandered around a little longer and then decided to leave. Last year, we stopped at almost every booth and signed up for "free" stuff and in doing so, you could grab a free pen or magnet, etc. Well, what we didn't think about was the fact that we would get bombarded with phone calls for months afterwards from people wanting to install new windows or sweep our chimney - you get the idea. So after we left, we drove to a new (to us) little restaurant that we had heard about. Peepaw's co-workers had all told him about this place that is kind of out in the country. It's between Gate City and Kingsport and is called White's Farmhouse Restaurant. It was very quaint and had good country cooking. The surprising feature of this place was the two huge crystal chandeliers hanging inside. Although they didn't really fit the decor, they were so pretty and really lit that place up. I couldn't quit staring at them. They have daily specials and Peepaw wanted fried chicken livers and I got meat loaf. After we placed our order, the waitress came back to the table and very apologetically explained that they had run out of chicken livers. (can you imagine??) They must be REALLY good. So his alternate choice was a flat iron steak. The sides all sounded so good...mashed potatoes, fried okra, green beans, pinto beans, broccoli and cheese casserole, etc. When we ate (and it was very good), Peepaw went to pay the cashier (who was also our waitress). She told him that she was not going to charge him for the steak since he had originally ordered chicken livers so his steak dinner with all the fixins was only $7.99 as opposed to the $10 it would have cost, which is pretty inexpensive for a steak. And it was a pretty good sized piece of meat. We decided then and there that we'll definitely go back for breakfast one day soon.
We're listening to Elton John's album, Captain Fantastic and the Brown Dirt Cowboy. Peepaw said it's one of his very favorites and he thought of it tonight because we had recently seen an episode of Andy Griffith that had Goober in it. When Peeps was about 13 years old, he was visiting his Aunt Carolyn during the summer and was helping to hoe her garden. He would go in the house to cool off and listen to that particular Elton John album on his 8 track player. When he was finished, they went out to eat at a restaurant that George Lindsay (Goober) owned in Little Rock. Afterwards, he went to Baskin Robbins for the first time and got a Daiquiri Ice cone. He said he felt so grown up that day. The first time I got ice cream at Baskin Robbins, I was persuaded by my brother, David, to get licorice. It was so ugly...all dark gray. Plus I didn't like licorice candy at all but if David wanted me to do it, I did. It was so good. It turned my mouth all black and the customers in there stared at me but I didn't really care. I've only had it once again since then and that was in Beaumont, Texas. I was in high school and the local Baskin Robbins brought back licorice for a limited time and I couldn't wait to try it again. I figured it wouldn't taste as good as I remembered but you know what? It was even better. I sure wish they would offer it again because there are a lot more weird flavors of ice cream nowadays than licorice.
We're looking forward to a pretty calm week and hope that each of you has a calm, happy week, too. We love you all very much.
Mom
