Rugby Pilgrimage 2012

This past Saturday Historic Rugby, Inc., held its biennial Pilgrimage which, with the Christmas Tour of Homes in alternate years, is the only time private homes are open to the public. Houses open represented a mix of historic houses, historic reconstructions of houses previously lost to fire, and new houses built to look like they dated from the 1880s.

Having 1884 Ingleside open was a special treat, since the owners are aged and in ill health. They graciously let a friend show the house for them.  I got my first pictures of Ingleside interiors, so I'll have a post devoted to the house sometime in the future.

Oak Lodge was built in the early 1880s as overflow space for the Tabard Inn and continues to be available for overnight lodging. Shown is the second floor sleeping porch which now is set up as a sitting area, but in the 1880s would have been filled with beds in summers without air conditioning.

Another treat was Uffington House, home of Margaret Hughes, mother of founder Thomas Hughes. Progress has been slow on restoring Uffington House, but two bedrooms have now been furnished based on historical photographs. The room above was occupied by Thomas's daughter Emily, who lived with her grandmother until Margaret's death in 1887.

Wren's Nest was built in 1887 behind Adena Cottage to house the manager of Mr. Wellman's chicken business. It has been extensively restored and modernized by Bob and Mary, formerly of Nashville and Vanderbilt University.

Visitors are greeted by Rita and Carman at Inis Fal Cottage, a newer home in Rugby's Beacon Hill development.

There is so much to see inside Inis Fal that we'll have to pay a return visit soon.

I find Amherst Cottage to be one of the architecturally most-interesting houses in Beacon Hill.

Here owner Lisa greets visitors from Crossville, Tennessee, on her wrap-around porch. Maybe we'll take an in-depth look at this one later, as well.

At Hester Knolle, Jody greeted visitors at the front door,

while Harry presided over his elaborate "man cave" in the basement.

But this is Rugby, after all, and nothing gets by without a little drama.....

The Pilgrimage was scheduled to start at 10, so promptly at 9 the water main broke leading into the village. Several event volunteers brushed their teeth with bottled water, but the cafe had to stop serving, but worse yet, there were no bathroom facilities that worked. But this is Rugby, after all, and history came to the rescue.

A quick-thinking board member just as quickly cleaned out an old "necessary" and visitors proved to be very adaptable. Fortunately water was restored early to three open houses at the northwest end of the village, and these proved to be among the most popular with our visitors. And water was restored to the whole village by 1 pm and the cafe was able to start serving late lunches.

As Shakespeare said, "All's Well that Ends Well." Our good ending included a brief scene from an original play about 1880s Rugby that will be premiered in April as part of Historic Rugby's second Quilt Show.

A Tomato War

The highlight of Grainger County, Tennessee's, annual Tomato Festival is the Tomato War. The rules are very similar to dodgeball, except tomatoes are thrown instead of balls.

Boxes of tomatoes are placed on and next to barrels near mid-field. At the starter's whistle, equal teams throw ripe tomatoes at the opposing team. Players are eliminated when hit below the shoulders by a tomato, and the round ends when all of the players on one side are eliminated.

You want to start with plenty of ammo!

Note the videographer from a local TV station catching the action, using raincoats to protect herself and her camera from catching a tomato.

Rush the other team!

Going in for the kill!

"Ha! You missed!"

 Regroup for another charge!

Attack!

Time out for an injury. It turned out she wasn't hurt badly, just some tomato juice in the eye. I'm sure it burned until it was washed out with tears. But since she was hit above the shoulders, she was not eliminated. And she was game! Five minutes later she was back in the fray.

Despite the tomato-juice-in-the-eye incident, it was all great fun. I'll bet just about all of the warriors will be back at it next year. Yet ......

that's a lot of BLTs that won't get made this year.

Grainger Tomato Festival

Grainger County, Tennessee, has branded itself the "Tomato Capitol." The Grainger County brand is widely recognized in a 250-mile radius for vine-ripened flavor and quality. Grainger tomatoes have even made their way to Canada and Mexico. For each of the past 20 years Grainger County has celebrated, and promoted, its premier product with a Tomato Festival. This year we finally attended one.

At first glance it looked pretty much like any fair.

There was a midway with lots of opportunities to later say "Man, I can't believe I ate that!"

There were lots of activities to keep the young ones busy.

 

There were lawn tractors souped up for racing.

and a display of vintage farm tractors.

There were artists and crafters,

and a long table of writers selling and signing their books.

There were line dancers,

and cloggers.

Even the local blood bank followed the crowd here.

But it was really all about the tomatoes.

Everywhere farmers were selling tomatoes; by the pound, by the peck, and by the bushel. We watched vans fill with bushel boxes of tomatoes heading home to be canned or rendered into tomato juice and pasta sauce. There was another tomato attraction beyond the chance to buy premium tomatoes in quantity at bargain prices, however - the famous Tomato War!