Cooper-Young Festival

Well I'm happy to say that we actually made it to Cooper-Young this year. (I can't remember what happened last year...something to do with interrupting nap time, I think.)

After our Chattanooga trip, I actually suggested that we walk aaaaaaaaaaall the way to the festival. (It's what, 1-2 miles?) But since I inexplicably gave away our very last stroller before the aforementioned trip, we decided to go ahead and drive. We foolishly thought we could park at the "blue playground" and walk on over. By 10:30 the blue playground was overflowing and we ended up down the road from Otherlands.

We made it about a block or so before Satchel started saying, "Somebody's calling my name!" Yeah, sure.

Turns out, someone actually was. The Chockleys! That was fun. We walked to the festival and managed to stick together for a good 30-45 minutes. (We lost them to Ben & Jerry's, I believe. After blowing $10 on the kiddie games, we passed on the $4 ice cream cones.)

Let's talk about the kiddie area for a minute. It was basically two moonwalks, and a series of little games where kids paid in tickets ($1 each) to play and then were rewarded with different tickets to cash in like at Chuck E. Cheese. The games--one hole of "Putt Putt," a ring toss, a dart like game, and (my favorite) "potty toss" were mediocre at best, but luckily the kids didn't notice. The ticket for toy selection was about the lamest I've ever seen. The monkeys won 25 tickets and we had a hard time even cashing them in. We left with 2 tattoos, a small squishy thing, and 21 tickets. Geez. I think I would have preffered a patch of astroturf and an Elmo sprinkler. Next year I'd like to see some benches for parents to park their rear ends on, some shade, and a full scale Rock-n-Romp or Disco Party or something.

Got that?

The monkeys enjoyed watching balloons fly into the air every so often, nagging us to get their faces painted, and coming precarioualy close to breaking small objects in nearly every booth we passed.

Moving on...the best part of Cooper-Young is bumping into folks you haven't seen since the previous festival. I was psyched to find Alicia Lartigue, who is now based out of Bella Notte. She made the monkeys' baby blankets, and since they are all about their blankets--especially Jiro, it was nice to see her and tell her that and also buy another blanket for a little baby boy due any day now. The funny thing was that Alicia had made a little dress out of one of the fabrics on Jiro's blanket and once he saw it, he wanted it. If it was anywhere near big enough for him, I promise I would have bought it.

Oh and another highlight was getting "recognized" by a new mama pushing a babystroller. "I know you! I read your publication! Oh, sorry, I'm a mom (points to stroller)! I'm usually very shy!" she rambled in a exotic accent as her husband looked on, a little embarrassed. I smiled and did my best to act like an interesting person who is also friendly and engaging out of print. "Oh, thank you! That's so nice! Wow! Okay, sorry, I've got to find a 'potty'. Have a fun day!"

Down by First Congo we saw a troup of Nubian dancers. We stopped for a bit to enjoy the music and shade. A little girl--about Jiro's age--was totally loving the music and dancing her heart out. It was so awesome. I tried to take a picture, but it just didn't capture it.

I think most of our money was spent of food, despite the fact that I lugged around a bag of heavy ass snacks and water. As a group we consumed a foot long corn dog, two regular corn dogs, an ear of corn, a giant lemonade (with no top or straw!), two eggrolls, and an iced tea.

We got the eggrolls at Jasmine and they were yummy. Here's Satchel (a.k.a. Hot Dragon) showing me how the eggroll is going directly to his biceps.


New (to us anyway) this year was the wrestling outside of Black Lodge Video. We arrived pre-show and let the monkeys run loose in the ring. As you can see, Jiro (a.k.a. Fire Ball) was right at home.


After a brief rest in the oasis that is Mothersville, we went back to watch the fat guys in tights for a bit. I first thought that Jiro was surely taking notes so he could spring some new moves on us later, but after a few minutes of taking it all in (foot to head, check), he burst into tears and said he wanted to go home.

"I didn't get my face painted!" Satchel complained as we headed towards the car. Before I could come up with a lame excuse why, oddly enough, he happily said, "I know, I can get it done later, right?"

When all was said and done, we spent four hours walking around (sans sunscreen, stroller, or comfortably designed carry-all bag) having a pretty good time.