2016 October 1, Saturday Banana Puddin' Festival, Car Show and Quilt Show Centerville, TN

I could not sleep and was up at 3AM watching TV and writing in my journal.
Ate a banana and two pieces of sausage for breakfast.
We were on the road by 7:30AM taking our time as we rode to Centerville.
The sun was just coming over the horizon and there was a cloud of mist that covered the ground.

We travel north on hwy 43 turning left on hwy 50 near Columbia.
Vendors were still sitting up at their booths when we arrived.
We walked around the square downtown, stopping and looking inside the old courthouse which housed several vendors.
Outside we stopped in front of the chicken wire MINI Pearl to take a couple of pictures.

Minnie Pearl 

We followed the signs to the open field where the Banana Pudding  Festival was being held.
Inside the gate, we were asked if we were first-timers and were given a banana sticker with first-timers written across the banana. There were several people placing pins on a large map to show where people were from.

Monkey Head

Smokey the Bear

Entering the Pudding Festival 

The woman said we have thousands of people from all over the world that come to our festival. We have a couple that come from Australia every year.

The Cook-off
The cook-off consisted of ten contests, we watched the first five.
Each contest made two of the same puddings, one for the judges to sample, along with samples passed out to the audience to judge.
The first pudding was to be auctioned off.

The first 5 contestants in the Cook-off

One of the contestant's Banana Puddin dishes

At 10AM we were at the Puddin' Path for 10 samples of different banana puddings.

The Puddin' Path Samples 

#1 Moon Pie Banana 

Baked by the Puddin'

Baked By: Bon Aqua United Methodist Church 

#2 The Chisel (Chocolate)

Baked by: Fairfield Church of Christ Youth

#3 White Chocolate & Caramel Banana Pudding

Baked by the Relay for Life: Friends of Hope Team

#4Bell’s Best Banana Pudding

Baked by: Shady Grove United Methodist Church 

 #5Pickadeli at the Hicadeli

Baked by Thomas Hickman Hospital

#6 Pudding & Pearls Banana Pudding

Baked by: Centerville Woman’s Club

7#Caramel Cheese Cake Banana Pudding

Baked by: East Hickman Baptist Youth

8#Party-lIne Banana Pudding

Baked by: Nunnelly United Methodist Church 

9#Classic Southern Banana Pudding

Baked by: Mt Zion AME Church 

#10Cinnamon Roll Banana Pudding

Baked by CrossRoads Cowboy Church

The puddings consist of bananas inside a variety of puddings, from various organizations.
Each organization had baked the pudding to raise money for their cause.
The Pudding path cost was $5 per person.
Once you tasted each pudding you could vote for your favorite with a donation.

We could not eat all the samples, some were very good, some not so good.
My favorite was the cheesecake banana pudding.

We stayed to listen to a couple songs sung and played by a group of three young people from the same family.

We strolled through the park, stopping to examine what each vendor had to offer.
We stopped at the car show and took several pictures.
We saw a replica of Mini Peal riding in a jeep.
From the car show, we walked a few blocks to The First Baptist Church on 123 Church Street to look at the Hickman County Quilt Guild.
The show featured, "Something old, Something new"!
Their mission is to promote an interest in the art of quilting.

Something Old, something new 

Two of the sweet ladies that we met at the Quilt show

My quilt pick!

We rode to Grinders Switch Grinder's Switch
Grinders Switch was the fictional hometown of the comic character Minnie Pearl, created and portrayed at the Grand Ole Opry by comedian Sarah Ophelia Colley Cannon, who grew up in the nearby Colleyville neighborhood of Centerville.

Watertower at Grinders Switch 

Grinders Switch 1940

Minnie Pearl said, People always ask me, "Where is Grinder's Switch?"

As I grow older, the place is no longer a little, abandoned landing switch on a railroad in Hickman County. Grinder's Switch is a state of mind -- a place where there is no illness, no war, no unhappiness, no political unrest, and no tears. It's a place where there's only happiness --where all you worry about is what you are going to wear to the church social, and if your feller is going to kiss you in the moonlight on the way home. 

I wish all of you a Grinder's Switch

On our way home we stopped at Ponderosa in Lawrence to eat an early dinner and late lunch.
We both ordered a steak and salad.

We still had a couple of hours to visit the Oktoberfest in St Florine.
The tractor was loaded with passengers as we approached.
We loaded into the wagon and rode around the festival.

Riding in the Wagon 

Oktoberfest

The Senior Center building was full of history about the German families that had settled in St Florine.
We walked inside but I stopped at the first display and began talking to one of the family members that lived in the area.
By the time I stopped talking the festival was about over.

Maybe I can return tomorrow