Each year for the past...10? 15? many! years, Freddie Anderson has organized the Blessing of the Fleet or the Fisherman's Send-Off. Each year he asks a representative of a local denomination to deliver a blessing, he solicits donations of food from the local fish processors, and donations of door prizes from everyone he can think of.
He said that as of this year, this event has given away 780 life jackets. These are this year's winners. You can see members of our crew here - Matt, in the middle, next to Inku. Makenzie is over there to the left, her beautiful face framed by that glory of hair she has. You can see Mark's tall head in the back row behind Makenzie. All the way over on the left in the back row is Colin, the son of the coach of Harry's son's football team in Palmer.
For many years now, our beloved neighbors, the Williams family, have helped Freddie organize and run the operation. Here are Mark and Dana, helping people sign in and giving us our door prize tickets.
And here are Sam and Marcus, their sons, looking ridiculously handsome under any circumstances, but here we are, a bunch of setnetters and I just asked them to glance around for the camera.
I think our crew was about 10% of the attendees. Here we are, Jeff on the left, then Austin, Davey, Inku, Matty, David N, and Sarah. From the right there's David D, Harry, Oksanna, the elusive Hannah, and Makenzie. We're still waiting for Patrick, and then we will be complete.
Here are Oksanna and Hannah, looking totally at home in this odd environment where the Happy Birthday song is sung in a deep baritone.
After the minister gave a brief blessing, Freddie encouraged everyone to go get some lunch. He makes a point of announcing that elders should go first. Elders, huh? I don't know how to interpret my crew's insistence that I go get in line with the elders. What? Elders are people my mom's age. I could still elbow someone else out of the way. I don't need the special accommodation of a head start. I think Harry might be the instigator of the whole elder thing. Maybe he thinks that puts a gulf between old people and him? Ha! Maybe he hasn't noticed the thick, strong line tying us together. When he tosses me into the elder pile, that line tugs him a little closer too.
Hannah and Makenzie are definitely on the youngster side of the hill. I think I had finished eating by the time they made it up to the serving table.
Because it is so impressive, I want to show what my crew is able to do with paper plates and the availability of much food. I start with Inku because he has a very welcome way with food. You can see the deliberate thoughtfulness with which he's placing his lettuce. There's nothing sloppy or halfway about his focus here. When I saw him sitting down in our pantry and taking an inventory of what we had on the shelves, I knew we would be in good hands over the summer.
Here Inku is giving some consideration to what David L has created. Maybe he's wondering whether he should try it himself, or maybe he's making a mental not not to let David L near the kitchen.
But it doesn't really matter what kind of sandwich David L put together. How can we help but love such a lovable guy?
And here is David D. He explained to us that he became an accidental vegetarian some years ago, but once he started coming fishing, he evolved into an "opportunivore," one of those perfectly self explanatory, succinct, and clever expressions.
One of the advantages of getting my plate with the elders is that my hands are free and I'm not distracted either by hunger or by food when everyone else sits down, so my camera can make a study of the crew. Here is Austin, exhibiting what I have come to see has his characteristic relationship with the camera.
And Matty, with his characteristic relationship with food -- can you see Sarah's alarm in the background?
And again, the elusive Hannah. Daughter of Harry and Jane, sister of Makenzie and Everest, sister-in-law of Maddi, aunt of Otto and Leo, cousin of many, and niece of me...well, OK, and of a few other people too.
And since Moore Girls really never appear singly, here they are, the new and improved version of the Moore Girls 2.0.
Freddie was able to get many door prizes for this year's Fishermen's Send-Off. It's funny how much we enjoy winning - I think I'd like it even if the prize were a potato. It always makes me feel lucky. But this time, the luck was with Jeff.
He was on fire all day long. Not literally - Jake isn't here this year, so there wasn't much risk of that, really. His door prize was a nifty flashlight, and since he lives in a cave, that will come in very handy. Plus, the crew has been known to play poker using batteries as their chips. And on those occasions, Jeff has been known to raid his headlamp for the batteries to buy his way back into the game. So I'm just saying that a few extra batteries in his hands might be more helpful than to most, and for more than one reason. But that wasn't the end of his winning ways on June 18th. Freddie also puts together a grand prize with a life ring, a first aid kit, a suspenders style life jacket and other loot. He won that too!!
After the Blessing of the Fleet, we all came back to the cabin. I started bread (and maple bars!) and they started a poker game. Again, Jeff cleaned up, wiping out Matty's supply of chips. Matt had just enough to scrape himself into the next game where he set his sites on Jeff. When all the other players had folded, he turned to Jeff, clearly bent on revenge, "So we meet again, Jeff!"
I think it makes everyone happy that Austin pretty much lives in his crew onesie (that he insists on calling a Union Suit). He definitely seems like a natural for this work - he even brought his own onesie with him.
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