Dear Max ...

I am TRFing my little heart out. I have become the unofficial proposal coordinator for this year. I got 'promoted' and I use that term loosely to the introduction of VIP's at the noon proclamation. That is the optimum time to propose if you want to do it in front of the king with an audience. So now whenever someone calls the TRF office about a proposal they give them my telephone number. Weekend before last the fellow, Robert, is coming in from San Antonio with friends. The friends have been to TRF but not Robert and his girlfriend. But the friends have fixed them up with costumes and wouldn't it be great to be the knight in shining armor and propose. But he is not doing this for some romantic spot in the garden with Diane Linn on guitar. NOoooooo. It has to be in front of a bunch of people. OK. Noon Proc it is. I'll meet you at the information booth at 11:30 and tell you what to and when to do it. NO NO NO, He'll be there at 10:30. We should meet first thing so she won't wonder why they are going back to the information booth. And he is going to write a poem and it'll be great.

SO. 10:15 AM I am at the information booth as he will be there at 10:30. I wait. I greet the crowd coming in. I wait. Robert finally shows at 10 minutes until 12:00. They got lost. And he didn't write the poem. And what is he supposed to do. And say. And and and. I say everything is under control. Go to the Globe and get a front row seat on the left. I will introduce the VIP's, get them off, and then introduce you as someone asking a boon. Then you both come up. You get on one knee. You tell her how wonderful she is and how complete you feel with her and ask her to marry you and complete you for the rest of your lives. It'll be fine. I go back to the parade lineup, check on the VIP's, warn the king and queen that there will be a proposal, buy a long stemmed rose for Robert to present to his lady. Start the parade (I only get to do about 30 ft. before I have to peal off to be at the Globe for the VIP's) I get to the Globe and stand on a bench in the back so that Robert can see that I am there. He has sat on the right and not the left. A minor problem but I can deal with that, I just give the VIP's different instructions. Noon Proc starts, All Hail Jenny O'Manion, I introduce the VIP's, they get their 15 seconds, I introduce Robert. He sits there looking like a deer caught in headlights. "Now?" I nod to him "Yes, NOW!" He gets up on stage and stands there staring at the king. The king quietly suggests "Why don't you call up your lady?" "What?" "Your lady. Don't you have a lady? "Oh, yeah yeah." He calls to her. She stands up. I go and get her. He kneels and says something (no one could hear it), pulls out a ring box. She says "Yes." I give him the rose. They go to sit down and I suggest that the rose would be for her. He gives it to her. After the proc is over. I make my way over to offer my condolence congratulations. Never mind that he didn't reimburse me for the rose. Never mind that I was waiting an hour and a half wasting the best (35,000) day of the fair at the front gate. Never mind tipping me for holding his hand and making it happen. He never even said THANK YOU. Grrrrrr. Others have gone better. Robert really irked me. As you may be able to tell. Fritz is doing well and says "Howdy." I have two weeks to go and it has been an odd year. I cannot quite put my finger on it, but I am not as tired as I usually am by this point. I shall be sorry when this year's faire is over. Love, Sheryl

And then more recently:

Dear Max,

Last Weekend went well. Lots of people. Broke all the records. Largest closing Saturday ever. Over 320,000 for the year. Great weather helped us, but my grass could sure use some rain now. The final fireworks were great. They had been cancelled a couple of times due to weather, high winds blowing onto site etc. So Saturday was two nights worth and Sunday was three nights worth of fireworks. Pretty nice.

Striking camp on Monday: One of the neighbors remodeled last year and replaced some really second-rate doors. I had snagged the old doors to put under my tent for flooring and to keep me up out of the mud should it rain. We knew that they would have to be taken to the dumpster, the shoddy things were already falling apart when I had set up camp.

Fritz and I collapsed the tent and then in folding it into thirds he noticed a little bit of moisture on the bottom. The only moisture in the entire area. So we pulled the tent to the side, figuring that we would let it air dry while we loaded and dumped the doors and then come back to fold it up for storage. The first door picked up OK. The others were in various degrees of disintegration. I can understand why the neighbor replaced them. So we laugh and pick up pieces, try to hold our breath putting them in the back of the Explorer because of the mold and dust in the air from moving them. We finish and are talking about what an unusual strike it is as nothing is wet. For the past several years closing weekend has had weather problems, cold or wet or both, this year it is great. We grab our beverages of choice and turn around. And I scream. There is a large mottled brown snake right where we just picked up the last door from under my tent.

Crap. Triangular head, brown leaf colored, it's a copperhead. A foot and a half to two feet long. Next to my tent on the ground. Not far from the rest of my stuff. Right where we were just standing.

"Snake." Nobody comes to see. "SNAKE." No response. "SNAKE!!!!! Does anybody have a shovel?" Nothing. I find the bullhorn. "This is not a drill. I have a large snake over here. Does anybody have a shovel or anything." "No Sheryl, sorry."

Well, now Fritz and I are commiserating over the lack of community in the campground. Certainly in the old days, if you had a snake everybody would be coming over to check it out. Don't know where it came from. Don't want to chase it into someone else's camp. Can't leave while it is there, it might decided to go into/under my tent or my other belongings. It won't leave. I jump up and down hoping the vibrations would encourage it to go away. It twists around, tongue flicking in my direction. WRONG WAY. Fritz heads toward voices, "Anybody here have the balls to deal with a snake?" Ernesto comes over sword in hand. "Oh, a snake. We thought you wanted a shovel." A side note: I said snake. What was I supposed to say to get attention? Serpent, legless reptile, venomous pit viper? I digress. He approaches the trespasser, "I don't think that is a copperhead." Ok, chase it off. "Nope, that's a rattler." He hits the ground near it a sure enough the tail starts. Yipes. This is a first. We have come across copperheads many times before both in camp and in Sherwood Forest. Lucky me, I get the first rattlesnake. Ernesto dispatched it and took it off to the unoccupied area of the '100 acre woods' and we went to take the stuff to the dumpster. We unloaded the Explorer and told a few people about the snake, then went to get in the car to go back. I opened the door and yelped. There was a lizard sitting on the seat. Don't know where it came from. Second reptile surprise of the day. Saw an emu walking along side the road as we left site. Just out for a stroll on 1774. Another first. Love, Sheryl