It’s Picnic Week!
It’s picnic week and everyone is as busy as can be. The BBQ pits have been cleaned out, the Bingo stand is getting ready to go up, the new Speaker’s Stand has been spruced and is ready for its baptism by fire come Saturday. Everyone is getting their yard ready so as people drive through they are able to say that Fancy Farm was aptly named.
It seems strange to tell anyone this because we all know, but the Fancy Farm Picnic takes a solid year to plan and implement. In all honesty, it could probably take longer than that, but that is all the time we have. We know it. We start working on it even before this year’s picnic is in the bag. We don’t live, breathe and eat the picnic, but we do live, breathe and eat our community. We have a wonderful community.
Years ago when the Picnic was just starting it was decided to give each family a job to do. The Carrico’s cooked the BBQ. They knew how to do it and that was their specialty. The Elder’s sold meat by the pound. The Cash’s started out selling lemonade. Today they sell a whole lot of Sundrop. Everyone had a job at the picnic and you had to work. Of course, it wasn’t really work. Because at the same time, you got to see family and friends that you didn’t see any other time of the year. Plus someone had to take care of all the people who came from far and wide to eat, to visit, and to listen to the politicians.
A lot of people think that the Fancy Farm Picnic was started as a political event. Wrong. It never has been a political event. What it was, and still is, a fundraiser for St. Jerome Catholic Church in Fancy Farm. It started as a homecoming but developed into a fundraiser. In the beginning, whenever a crowd would form, politicians came running. It was decided to give those seeking political office a little recognition and a little time to talk. Fancy Farm is not the only place that happens. There are other events in this area of the world that offer that to politicians. Fancy Farm is just the one most people recognize. It could be that was because the Picnic used to be held right before the Kentucky Primary. It is acknowledged that if you intend to run for state-wide political office that you have to appear at Fancy Farm. You can ask anyone in Frankfort; they’ll tell you.
The Picnic is now held on the first Saturday of August. The Kentucky Primary is now held in May. But any politician will tell you that Fancy Farm now marks the beginning of campaigning for the General Election held in November.
The events of the Picnic now begin on Friday morning. The BBQ pork and mutton are cooked on pits for a full 24 hours. That means they need to go on the pits Friday morning in order to be ready to be sold by the pound at 8AM on Saturday. Being a Catholic community, the meat is blessed before it goes on the pits. But even before that, the community of Fancy Farm comes together for Mass, to celebrate what we have and pray for good weather and a good turn-out for all of our hard work.
Last minute chores that still need to be done are completed during the day on Friday. The screens go into the stands to keep the flies at bay. Fans are erected throughout the grounds as August in Kentucky has a tendency to be hot and humid. Fans help. The Picnic is held primarily outside. Those that are not used to Kentucky weather have a tendency to do a lot of sweating. Especially the politicians. They learn quickly not to get all dressed up to campaign at Fancy Farm. It doesn’t take them long to come out of their ties and jackets and roll up their sleeves. Hopefully they’re only sweating because of the heat and humidity on the Speaker’s Stand, but more often than not it’s because of the crowd of political junkies who wouldn’t miss a Picnic.
But I’m getting ahead of myself.
The stands are ready, the meat is cooking, there’s plenty of ice. So all is ready.
The St. Jerome One Mile Classic starts everything off Friday night. This is a run designed for families. Most of the runners are kids. Most of the walkers are their parents or grandparents. These kids don’t run for a prize. They run for a t-shirt and hopefully a door prize. They’ll wear those t-shirts all weekend.
The Knights of Columbus host a Fish Fry on Friday night and if you don’t get there when the doors open you might not get any fish. This is a hugely popular event. It was originally scheduled as a treat to the women of the community who do all of the cooking for the Picnic. On Friday night, in anticipation of the long day the next day, the men of the Knights of Columbus would fry up some fish so that their wives and other women in the community didn’t have to cook supper. But as people started coming in for the One Mile or 5K, or to listen to the band or just to visit, they started going up and eating fish too. Before you knew it it was one of the most popular events of the weekend.
The Fancy Farm Picnic Eve 5K is hugely popular. And I don’t know if it’s so popular because the route is so tough or because everyone has something to prove by running. But there have been years that over 1000 people have run this race. Some of the people that run are very competitive. Most of those that run though are competing against themselves and their last time. The race goes off at 7PM because it is usually so hot. But the hardest part about the race is this long, obnoxious hill that is right past the turn-around spot. Personally, I hate going down the hill. I don’t have a problem climbing it again. But if anyone is going to drop out of the race it is at that hill. If you’re not ready for it it’s going to stomp you.
After the runs and the fish fry it seems that everyone meets up at Picnic grounds to see who came out for the Friday night events. There are hamburgers and drinks available for sale up there and a local band will be playing with plenty of people dancing. Most of those that stay up late probably don’t have a job to do the next day. As those that do know, the sun comes up pretty early on Picnic morning and it’s time to get busy.
BBQ by the Pound goes on sale at 8AM. That means that meat will need to come off the pit and be boned out starting at about 7AM. If that happens then the line to buy meat isn’t up the hill. Working in the meat stand can be a lot of work. And after being in there most of the day you’re not the least bit interested in the BBQ. But early in the morning that meat is the best smelling thing. It is wonderful. And it melts in your mouth.
The Picnic doesn’t actually start until 10AM. But there is a lot of work to be done, even for those not at the Picnic yet. Most kitchens in the community are very active. Baked goods are getting ready that will be sold in the Country Store. Pies and cakes are being baked that will be available at dinner. Usually things have been baked throughout the week but you have to bake a meringue pie that morning. That’s when they are best. The potato salad is already done. Everyone brought their cooked and diced potatoes earlier in the week. The coleslaw is done. Homegrown tomatoes are being sliced. Beans are being cooked, chicken is getting ready to be fried out behind the KC hall. The men of the parish show off their skill with the fried chicken. It’s definitely worth eating.
At 10AM the Picnic starts. There’s not a horn that blasts. There is not a bell rung. It just starts. Everyone knows that it’s time to start. And so it does. Dinner starts at 11AM. I’m sure there’s some kind of fan-fare there, something like someone hollering, “okay, we’re ready, let them in.” But it just begins. We really don’t get into the fan-fare until about 1:30 when everyone starts getting on the speaker’s stand for the political speaking to start at 2.
And the political speaking is a picnic in itself. Politicians from across the state, and sometimes from across the country come to Fancy Farm to experience this phenomenon that used to be but can’t really be found anywhere else in the country. People come in by the bus-load. People come early, very seldom do they come late, unless of course they are a big-name politician. Then they take liberties. But not many, because they know they have to adhere to a strict time schedule. Everyone who comes is “for” someone. They are either for the Democrats or the Republicans. They are for this candidate or another. But they all have an opinion and at Fancy Farm they don’t hesitate shouting it to the top of their lungs. The political speaking committee is going to do the best they can this year to keep the shout-fest under control. The candidates may be able to muffle the people they brought with them but there are plenty of people who come on their own specifically to tell the candidates what they think of them, at the top of their lungs.
After the political speaking you would think that the crowd would go away, would die down. And it does, to some extent. A lot of the out-of-towners go away only to be replaced by the people from the Purchase District of Kentucky. These people come for the barbecue, the games, and for a chance to win a new car. They come because they’ve always heard about it and want to experience it or they come because they wouldn’t miss it for the world. But they come. And they stay. They stay until the capital prize, a bright and shiny new car, is raffled off at 10PM. They all have high hopes that their name is going to be called out. And it is very exciting when the person who wins is there. That is very exciting.
And then they start heading home. There are usually those who are not ready for the party to end. They hang around the grounds until the Sheriff’s office sends them on their way. Some of them planned on partying long and hard so they have rented a campsite on the picnic grounds. They just move their little party to their campsite.
You would think the picnic is then over for the people of Fancy Farm. But it’s not. It’s not over until after the next morning when we all come back to the picnic grounds and start cleaning up. As tired as we all are we know that we have to get those grounds back to pre-picnic form. And we won’t stop until we do. Of course, we are usually thanked with Mass later in the day followed by dinner. A nice, restful, dinner. Then we can go home with a feeling of satisfaction that we survived another picnic, knowing that we have almost a year before we have to do it all again.