Corn Memories

I remember the first year the Zellwood Corn Festival was held which was at a church on a hill that led to a lake. My memory was kind of faded after we got the corn with the dinner. However, I believe this was the year and one time appearance of the streaker who made a beeline for the lake. I don't know what inspired him to attempt such a feat. I only know is I barely saw him run by me. I don't know if he was ever caught or anyone gave him a lecture for attempting such a stunt. The second year the Zellwood Corn Festival was held at the same place, but a terrible thunderstorm happened while we were attempting to eat our sweet corn and dinner. When I mentioned the word we, I was thinking of my mom, dad and I supporting something new and pretty good eating. Later, the Zellwood Corn festival turned into a bigger production and was held at an open field with tents and big acts like Exile who sang " I want to kiss you all over." This song was a big hit back in the 1980's. The few times I remember going, there were long lines to get the dinner meal and the corn was cooking in big boiler pots. I don't attend The Zellwood Corn festival anymore. I do see it advertise in the late part of May. The weather is way to hot. Plus, I don't care to be around big crowds of people in hot weather. Plus, I don't care for parking with lots of cars and finding your car when it is time to leave. Plus, waiting in line just to get out of the parking lot. Mom and I would settle for buying a few ears of corn from Publix or Winn Dixie and dining at home in the cool air conditioner. The corn may not be as good as the Zellwood corn, but it is easy to fix and enjoy . The best corn I can remember is Indiana corn. Reason being, the corn has a lot of juices in each kernel. The white corn is very tender and the melted butter on the corn makes for the perfect topping on a scrumptious vegtable. Usually, I didn't stop at one ear. I would have several ears and cut the kernels off the cob, because I didn't want the kernels getting stuck in between my teeth. Indiana corn came with open farm type weather. It would still be warm, but there would be certain parts of the day where a coolness would prevail in the air. There would also be an openness and not a big city confinement. My one regret coming back to Florida in Southern Indiana was not taking a picture of an ATM machine in the middle of a corn field. This to me was a perfect symbol of Indiana combining the old with the new. I also didn't think there would be anyplace else like this in the United States.