It always seems August is bittersweet for me each and every year.
For four decades, the Pittston Tomato Festival has been closing out the summer with a bang and I’m sure everyone has their own stories on their experiences with the festival, but it will always be about Greater Pittston coming together one last time for the summer before tucking it away before school starts.
The festival, as I alluded to, marked the end of summer vacation for students and teachers but it also was the beginning of football season. Greater Pittston always has and always will love high school football.
The day’s light has slowly been decreasing since the end of June and that is something I never did enjoy. Every since I was a child, I always wished the longest day of the year was July 21 instead of June 21. Who can I talk to about moving that around?
I wonder if students today believe summer drags on as I did. Nowadays summer flies by in a blink of an eye pretty much like life and I don’t know how to slow that process down.
Winters are such a disaster for me and getting through January and February and even March gets longer each year. I count the days until spring has sprung a look forward to trees and flowers blooming and the grass getting greener.
But honestly, does anyone really want to let summer go?
Being that it’s Tomato Festival time, that only means all the homegrown gardeners will be picking those sun-drenched tomatoes. One thing that always made me happy in August was heading to my grandfather’s house so he could give me some of his freshly picked tomatoes.
I don’t know what he did to make his grow so large and juicy, but when you sliced into one of them, the juice would just be flowing everywhere.
One slice would cover an entire slice of bread and I always made sure there were two or three slices in my sandwich. Oh by the way, it was always just a tomato sandwich with salad dressing and some pepper on two slices of fresh bread. That thought just makes my mouth water.
Home gardens were everywhere back in a day. Everyone had one and some took up a lot of the backyard.
Zucchini, tomatoes, lettuce, and green peppers made up my mom’s garden along with mint, for some reason, she loved fresh mint. Oh yeah, basil was another herb she grew.
Often times she’d can a lot of the food for winter as if we lived on the prairie and we needed food for the winter to survive. I guess it was their mentality growing up in the Great Depression Era of the late 1920 and into the 1930s. It’s what their parents taught them.
Yes, gardens were in abundance and over the years, it’s seems to be an art from days gone by.
Oddly enough, the Tomato Festival no longer has a farmers’ stand selling tomatoes or vegetables.
I wish they would come back in future festivals, after all, homegrown ripened tomatoes hit their wheelhouse in the second and third week of August and besides, it is the Tomato Festival.
What’s a Tomato Festival without a tomato? Can you imagine a Kielbasa Festival without kielbasa, or the Pierogi Festival without a pierogi? Well, you get the idea.
This week I also want to mention the Greater Pittston Chamber of Commerce Women’s Network.
Last week the Women’s Network celebrated their annual Summer Luau, where approximately 60 women attended a nice evening in the dinning room at the Avenue Diner in Wyoming.
I’ve been covering so many of their parties that I’m considered an honorary member.
I must say, each and every time I show up at an affair, I’m always welcomed and maybe it’s because I have a camera in my hand or because of the great friendships I’ve developed over the years so with so many wonderful women.
Lori Nocito, Michelle Mikitish and Brandi Bartush do a great job of keeping the organization going and if I’m not mistaken, there are several hundred members.
There is such camaraderie amongst the women and everyone truly enjoys being in each other’s company.
I will say this, these ladies like to have fun and throw a party. The annual Christmas party and market is second to none and over the years it has gotten so big they eventually had to book the Grand Ballroom at the casino.
You really don’t find a male organization quite like the Women’s Network. Well, maybe the closest place to find a bunch of men would be the local tavern for Sunday football.
The ladies that make up the Women’s Network, I found, are strong, independent leaders of the community that get things done.
From the website: “The Women’s Network exists to encourage and empower women to create heartfelt, meaningful relationships with one another that will in turn strengthen our community. We also focus on helping our members market and promote who they are and what they have to offer.”
They do just that.
Thought of the Week
“We get so wrapped up in numbers in our society. The most important thing is that we are able to be one-to-one, you and I with each other at the moment. If we can be present to the moment with the person that we happen to be with, that’s what’s important.”
– Fred Rogers
Quote of the Week
“Nobody is superior, nobody is inferior but nobody is equal either. People are simply unique, incomparable. You are you, I am I.”
– Osho
Bumper Sticker
“There are many times when it is better to be kind than clever.”
– Thibaut
