Favorite Fridays~Summer Frolic

No doubt about it, one of my FAVORITIST things about Mt. Horeb is the Summer Frolic.

The first weekend of June (well, not last year, but that's not important), something magical happens in Mount Horeb.  First you see the banner go up over Main Street to serve as a reminder that the time has come~then up goes the banner that hangs on the Military Ridge Trail Bridge that passes over Springdale.  You start to hear names of bands that will be performing, and maybe you’re even start saving up some cash so you can play a card of BINGO or two.

It’s Summer Frolic.  The most wonderful time of the year…

Frolic takes place at Grundahl Park, and really, all over town.  There are parties at houses, games of croquet, parades, sales up town, and softball games in the ball diamonds.  I would ALWAYS overindulge on brats …but never so badly as the summer I was pregnant.  I think I actually went to the fairgrounds one morning to get one of the first brats served that day. 

  

Jeff and I got in the habit of throwing a Pre-Frolic party…usually as a good reason to bring our Hockey Section friends to Mount Horeb during a “warmer” month than we usually see during hockey season.  Even on the rainy years, we could always find a way to have fun~catching up with good friends has a way of making any weather endurable.

I’m not a huge carnival ride fan, but the Super Slide always proved a favorite for Evie, and the gal who runs the slide remembers her from year to year; which is charming considering the number of kids that poor gal must meet every day.  

Believe it or not, Frolic has even shown me some of the most encouraging sights of my life!  Last year, for example, right when we arrived at the midway, one of Evie’s dear friends from school joined us on the Ferris wheel, and after that, I was just ancillary!  Evie’s friends took her on ride after ride after ride.  They helped her on, and helped her off.  

Every ounce of me wanted to help, but every ounce of me knew I shouldn’t…she needed her friends, and her independence.

There are always GREAT bands to play in the music tent; every year~cover bands who would sing all of our favorites from the Beatles, to Poison, to Journey. 

There’s just something about dancing under the stars with a cool June wind blowing off the cornfields from the west while singing Sweet Child of Mine.  Nice.

Then there’s the Frolic Parade; the arduously long parade; the parade with every fire truck from every the city in Wisconsin.  Well, maybe not that many, but it feels pretty close!  Our house is a prime location for seating as we are just one house off of Main Street; however many times we’d sit by Jeff’s parent’s house with them as they lived closer to the Frolic grounds; and as Evie got older, we started sitting by her buddy Jack’s house too.  In other words, we’ve seen the Frolic Parade from all angles and at all points in time.  

And then it's over...we may decide to straggle on down to the fairgrounds for one last game of BINGO, or a spin on the Carousel, but Sunday marks the end of Frolic.  The carnies pack up their portable rides, the striped tents come down, and the whir of the generators that power it all quiets and finally fades into the humming of hungry flies and curious crickets.  Soon the excitement will rebuild just down the highway in Verona at Hometown Days~but for the time being, Mt. Horeb rests in the post~Frolic peacefulness of knowing that summer is well on it's way. 

I'm not sure if we'll make it to Frolic this year or not; but if last year was our last year, then it was certainly the best year...