Friday, August 30, 2013

Oatmeal - It's Good For What Ails You

Well, it's Labor Day Weekend. And that can only mean one thing.

Yes, boys and girls, it's once again time for the annual Oatmeal Festival!
Bertram is perhaps best known for its Oatmeal Festival held each year on the Friday and Saturday before Labor Day (August 30th & 31st, 2013). Begun in 1977 as a good-natured attempt to put neighboring Oatmeal back on the map after state map-makers ignored the tiny neighboring community, the festival has evolved into one of the wackiest, most imaginative small-town festivals anywhere.

In 2013, Bertram celebrates 36 years of craziness and fun, and as always, it will actually "rain" oatmeal during the parade! (Watch out for Commander Caraway and the Oatmeal Air Force). Each year visitors come from far and wide, appreciating Bertram's sense of humor and their small town pride and friendliness. Because the festival is sponsored by Three Minutes Brand Oats, every event starts at 3 or 33 minutes past the hour.

The festival begins on Friday night with a BBQ dinner and the Miss Oatmeal Pageant in Oatmeal. A trail-ride moves the festivities to Bertram on Saturday morning, which includes a fun-run, parade, cook-off, zany games, food, and arts and crafts, kids events and more.
There's even an Oatmeal Festival T-Shirt Contest. (Sorry, guys, no wet t-shirts involved. Instead, it's a 'design the offical Oatmeal Festival T-shirt contest.')

On a somewhat serious note, there's so much doom and gloom in the news these days that it's refreshing to realize there's still a lot of good old-fashioned small-town All-American fun out there. So go out and find some yourself this holiday weekend.

As for me, I'll be taking my sugar to the Oatmeal Festival!...



1 comment:

Toejam said...

Many years ago in the 1960's when studying under a "Zen" instructor I was put on an oatmeal and grapefruit diet.

7 days a week, 3 times a day I had a heaping bowel of oatmeal (no milk or sugar) and a quart of fresh squeezed grapefruit.

It's a great weight loss regimen. The only drawback was the bathroom began to smell like a horse barn that hadn't been mucked-out in a month.