This weekend in central Kentucky is the annual mayhem of Court Days in Mount Sterling, KY. This sleepy town of about 5,000 people swells to over 100,000 during this event. Back in the day, Court Days used to be one of the last trading days of the year when folks would come once a month to the county seat to decide on business and usually they would bring things to trade like animals, livestock, sorghum molasses, guns, etc. Now it is acres and acres of booths of people selling their wares, something like the vendors at a large state fair complete with great carnival food like funnel cakes, BBQ sandwiches, gyros and fruit dumplings.
One of the best parts to me is going down the far section of Queen Street where the gun sellers are. Having grown up in Seattle and living most of my life in urban and suburban areas, it was quite a shock to me to see hundreds of people carrying rifles and shotguns slung across their shoulders in the midst of thousands of people. People sell all kinds of guns including some very cool antique ones from the War Between the States/Civil War era. There are also thousands of knives for sale too. Don’t get me wrong — it is a safe place. I haven’t heard of any kind of violence or shooting occurring at Court Days but it is a bit eery to someone like me who’s “not from these parts,” as the locals would say.
Mostly, there are booths selling everything from bundles of socks, to freshly fried pork skins, to handmade quilts to potpourri to Polish stoneware. I like to look for unusual things and last year my favorite purchase was a little sumo wrestler about two inches tall whose head comes off and is really a very small box. Yeah, it sounds weird but I collect boxes and this also tied into my fascination with sumo. Wait, that sounds even weirder. Oh well.
Our dear friends Paul and Leslie will have a booth selling jerk chicken this year. If for some reason you are in the Mount Sterling area this weekend and don’t suffer from ochlophobia (fear of large crowds) stop on by and try out their tasty vittles.
I can also give an endorsement to Court Days; while it is eery to see all those people with weapons of every kind, it is a safe, fun experience.
Oh and the food is great.
Ohhh how I love funnel cakes! However, this weekend we are going to “Cider Fest”. Some friends of ours have a cider press, and they’re having a “party” and pressing cider. After last year’s cider pressing soiree Joe decided he needed his own cider press. Yeah. That’s what we need. A cider press.
Eat some gyros for me!
[…] Night and Day Originally uploaded by beatnikside. It’s been a rough few days as I have caught another cold. I think it was from one of the thousands of people swarming about me at Court Days. I knew I should have taken some Airborne before hand as a preventative measure, but in my rush to get to the peach dumplings, I forgot. I am renewing my friendship with NyQuil® and DayQuil® who are now my constant companions, along with my boxes of Puff Plus (got to have that lotion in there!). […]