CANADA POTLUCK TODAY!
Charlotte spent the morning preparing a foot and a half long piece of steak loin to perfection. It will be our contribution to the potluck that starts at 4:30 pm.
We watched a movie, "The Client", on TV as the roast cooked. It was an Academy Award winner (1995), starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones. It is about a young boy who witnessed the suicide of a mafia lawyer. He hires an attorney to protect him when the district attorney tries to use him to take down a mob family. The mob, in turn, also threatens his life.
We then headed to the pool for an early afternoon swim at 1:30 pm. It would be "dereliction of duty" not to take advantage of the 80+F weather. We usually don't go until later in the afternoon. All the lounge chairs were occupied so we put our towels on regular chairs. Some folks lay in the sun for hours - we're good for about 15 minutes! After an hour we returned to the RV to do the final preparations for the Canada Day Potluck.
Now that the roast had cooled it was easier to slice. Charlotte had cooked it to perfection and it was very tasty, to boot!
What a crowd at the Canada Potluck! - 200 - and some "Canadian Snowbirds" didn't come. Last year's crowd 160. We were close to the Hall Capacity allowed by law - they had better build the new hall at Superstition Views for next year!
The colours "Red and White" were front and center.
Needless to say we sat with other folks from Canada (Ontario and Saskatchewan). We had live entertainment as the hall filled. Then all sang O Canada! and "Grace" to the tune of Edelweiss. We had met the accordian player at another function a few years ago and knew he was also from Ontario (Haliburton area). It wasn't until we met his wife this year that we learned they had lived in the Cornwall, ON area as well - small world!
While waiting to begin each table had a Baby Boomer Trivia Quiz to fill out - I scored 18/20. I was wrong on "Beaver" Cleaver's best friend (Larry) - I chose Eddie who was his brother Wally's best friend. I also missed on the Superman question. Superman fights for truth, justice and ..."the American Way". I contend my answer "World Peace" was correct and the original version was changed later by Action Comics. Superman was co-created by a Canadian Joe Shuster. When Superman first appeared, his alter ego, Clark Kent, worked for the "Daily Star", newspaper, named after the Toronto Daily Star, Shuster's old employer in Toronto, Ontario. Shuster also modeled the cityscape of Superman's home city, Metropolis, on that of his old home town.
Folks took turns standing when their Province was called. Ontario made up about 1/4 of the crowd. The youngest Canadian present was 3 months old (we don't do oldest down here) and the newest Canadian present had just flown home the previous weekend (Vancouver, BC) to be swore in as a fellow Canuck!
The MC had a number of humourous stories to entertain the crowd as the tables were called to fill their plates at the "Groaning Board". We were wondering how they were going to do this as there were no numbers on the tables as usually was the case. It turned out that the "Pint" sized flag holders (literally - a pint Milk Carton - pun intended - grin) were covered in "Red and White" with a unique Canadian Symbol. Our symbol was a "Toque". It didn't matter for our table - we went when they called "Two Sticks (Hockey)" which sounded like "Toques" (TWO (sti) CKS) over the din of the crowd chatter. No matter - there was no shortage of food this year! A great meal with plenty of leftovers. Several raffle ticket draws later (no luck at our table) as well as a $100 donation to the local food bank and it was time for dessert.
About half of the crowd stayed for the dance after the meal.
Another full day - we put the TV on timer and went to bed. Neither of us made it to the end of the show!
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