A Pie & Ice Cream Social Under the Cottonwoods

Perhaps you recall that sometime back I wrote about two old retired Santa Fe stations that sit alongside Iron Springs Road. Here's the third of the trio -- unlike the other pair, it is less than a mile from its original railroad home in Skull Valley. I was fortunate enough to score a ride down the hill for the annual ice cream and PIE social sponsored by the Skull Valley Historical Society Saturday morning.

There were ladies and gents in period costumes, the men as Arizona Roughriders...

...and the ladies in their Sunday-go-to-meeting finery.

There was music -- by the bluegrass gospel & western group, Extra Touch.

This was not an occasion for all those sales booths we see at most summer events. Only a few items were on sale, all local, including honey...

...cute little owls made from what look like Arizona walnuts...

...Skull Valley tee shirts...

...cloth books made by a Skull Valley woman...

...and pie, wonderful pie! Oh, so many kinds of pie there were.

Pumpkin. Apple in various guises. Lemon meringue. Lime cream. Chocolate. Assorted berries. Pecan. You name it...
Well, I did. I asked for good old fashioned rhubarb. It took some looking, which the ladies did willingly. Finally they found two, among all those homemade goodies that were still packed away, waiting to be served from the long table. But I'm sorry to have missed tasting some of those other confections. At $5 a pop (priced to pay for the entertainment and food), a slice of that lime cream looked a hair pricey. But mainly, I was short on cash!

Folks ate at tables in back of the museum in the shade of those immense cottonwood trees for which Skull Valley is famous (all thanks to the best water table in all Yavapai County, BTW.) If you still need convincing, the picture below should help gauge the size of those trees.

I haven't room in this post for the other pictures you'll see soon, of the beautiful quilts and the really, really antique autos that were on display! And, not so incidentally, the reason I made it all the way down to Skull Valley is that a dear friend, Georgene Lockwood, is running for county supervisor for district one. She is attending all manner of local events to meet people and get a feel for what they expect of a candidate.

Speaking of Elections: In case you were looking for a website for the Yavapai Wester (formerly the Yellow Sheet), it is here. There's a good story about the election of our new mayor.

Voting by Mail???

Of course, I'll do it -- but I really don't believe in it. A proper election involves voting booths, precin't cap'ns, and a lot of whoopla. The voters should be excited. Somehow, a mail-order election just isn't.

Yes, we've had the ads in our local newspaper and a few signs here and there. But it remains too much a whatever moment.

You wouldn't know that on one side are the folks who brought you the Lowe's strip mine; on the other, are people who think they can maybe slow our foolish race to be an ever-expanding, Big Time City. I know which way my meager vote will go.

Old Chicago Adage: Vote Early & Often

That was the lesson I learned as a gung-ho, radical college student. I suspect it's still taught at mothers' knees in the neighborhoods of the windy city. After all, local politics is the city's secular religion. Where else would a socialist alderman from the reform-minded 5th Ward (i.e., University of Chicago area) be able (and willing) to fix a ticket along with the most loyal machine Democrats?

But that was then. Today was now! Very little electioneering evident at my polling place. Just this one guy with a sign -- and he more visible from Gurley Street than from most entrances to the voting booths.

Here's the entrance, with signs, of course. No cell phones. Nothing said about cameras, you'll note. I did ask the assorted election officials & judges. As far as they knew, there was no law about taking pictures. So I did.

This is the first sight I saw upon entry. These citizens are using the paper ballot, filling the circles with a lovely deep black, very inky pen. Just like those machine-scored tests back in school!

Another voter getting his ballot.

If one felt high-tech and trusting, there was a touch screen model optional. I didn't see anyone using it while I was present.

My turn -- checking the ID against the roll.

I get my long, long ballot.

It's finished -- I had to carry a cheat sheet because of the overload of propositions. Arizona is a western state, where citizen-initiated law is the rule. Like California.

This machine slurps my ballot -- and maybe it also scans the document to add to the totals. I didn't get that info clear.

In any event, the paper ballots are stored in this locked box just in case anyone raises an eyebrow about the count. After that civic workout, it was time to go across the street to the local cafe for B&G, coffee and a newspaper.

Where I ruminate. I may not be in Chicago any more, but I still believe in the voting booth, if at all possible. Yes, it is easier to sit at the kitchen table by yourself with a mail-in ballot. About as exciting as making out a shopping list, isn't it? For my money, that approach puts ever more distance between the citizen and Them. No -- give me the rituals, the citizen and party people overseeing the voting scene, the interaction of voting with others at the local precinct. I still celebrate that secular religion I learned in Chicago.