Out and about

By WANDA WAYFARER

By now you’ve realized that the summer nights are growing shorter, the day and night temperatures are dropping and our gardens are losing some of their crops. Not to worry; you still have a couple of good weeks of summer to get all those summer plans accomplished.

On Friday night, take a chance on learning something new and wonderful about the environment. A Plant and Mushroom Walk will commence in Apple Grove in Honesdale, PA (Route 191 north, past Honesdale) at 7:00 p.m. with naturalist and local resident Nathaniel Whitmore (570/224-0264). The walk is free but a good-will donation is requested.

Whitmore leads outdoor educational trips and seminars periodically in the area. He has an extensive knowledge of which plants are edible and which are poisonous in our woods. This walk should be a lot of fun as well as a learning experience. Make sure that you dress accordingly for the evening temperatures, and wear comfortable shoes.

On Saturday, head over to the Kadampa Meditation Center’s Open House in Glen Spey, NY (845/856-9000). Kadampa’s temple is a masterpiece of architecture, and well worth seeing on that account alone. But the open house will include much more.

The day will begin at 10:30 a.m. with free public tours of the temple. A vegetarian luncheon will also be provided from 1:00 to 2:00 p.m. for $5 per person. Gen-la Kelsang Dekyong, the U.S. National Spiritual Director of the center, will address visitors from 3:00 to 4:00 p.m. on the topic, “What is Buddhism Anyway?” Throughout the day, guests will be welcome to tour the café, gift shop, walking trails and beautiful grounds surrounding the temple.

For some good local fun, check out the Damascus Community Center’s Penny Social (570/729-8320) in Damascus, PA. It will start at 6:00 p.m., and have a wide variety of items to bid on.

If you haven’t been to a penny social before, you’ll be in for a fun and novel experience. At these time-honored fundraising events, tables are set up around a room to showcase the products that are available for bidding. These items can be anything from books to picture frames to a case of canned vegetables. When you enter, you purchase tickets that can then be used to bid on the items on display. You do so by putting one (or more) of your tickets into a container next to the item you are interested in. The winning ticket is chosen at random. The key to a penny social is to bid on as many items as possible, increasing your chances to win. Many people take penny socials very seriously, and they can get highly competitive, but still loads of fun.

On Sunday, continue your community fun and head over to Hortonville, NY for their 75th annual Volunteer Fire Department’s Field Day (845/887-5177). The field day events will start around 12:00 noon with the Grand Street Parade. After the parade, the fireman’s field will be alive with games of chance, a delicious chicken barbeque, live music and more delicious food.

Under the new fireman’s pavilion will be there performance by Short Change, a rock band, so you can eat, drink and watch or dance to the band.

My favorite thing about the field day is the variety of the games of chance. They have bingo, the “wheel” and the bowling ball over the hump. There are many more games, but these are the ones I head off to first. The firemen also serve beer to quench your thirst, and have the greatest hamburgers around. All the food is so inexpensive that you can eat some there and take some home with you.

Being out and about in the different communities is a lot of fun. Plus, you get a chance to experience the best of what this area has to offer.