The third Sunday in May is the annual fish fry to support the Bleiblerville Volunteer Fire Department. For those of you that are not native ... Bleiblerville is pronounced ... BLY - BER - VILLE. We were new to this community event and underestimated the size of it. We saw people from all the surrounding towns and communities ... Brenham, Bellville, Industry, New Ulm, Chappell Hill and some from farther away like La Grange and Fayetteville. How did we know you might ask ... because they were wearing their community's volunteer firefighter uniform or support t-shirt. We even saw a couple from Fredricksburg, which is about three hours away.
Cullen enjoyed all the crowd noise and music playing. He actually slept through most of it. Here he is laughing at his new frog rattle toy that hangs from his car seat.
Melvin shows off the local fashion ... a cap declaring his support of the Bleiblerville Volunteer Fire Department. Taneshia opted for a fire engine red t-shirt to sleep in. TD decided he did not want either one.
TD and Taneshia are waiting for the live auction to begin. There were also tables full for the silent auction and a two raffles ... one for children and one for adults. In the live auction there were quilts, crocheted bed coverings, wooden rocking horses, metal work stands and racks, baskets of home grown vegetables, jars of cookies, and many more donated items. The neatest thing ... a pitchfork ... people bid for the right to have it for one year. Their way of "pitching" in to support the volunteer fire department.
The meal included fried catfish and cod, hushpuppies, potato salad and cole slaw. The local ladies had baked cakes, brownies, cookies, and pies for a free will donation. The chocolate cake we had was to die for! There was a beer booth with fire hat koozies for sale, a soda trailer that also made snow cones, and booths of children's activities. The man selling tickets told Papa John that they had food for 5,000!It was amazing to watch all the men working the fish fryers, the women serving the plates, and local teens working the booths and tables. A whole community coming together to raise money to equip their fire department. A fire department of community men volunteering their time to save a neighbor's property in the event of a fire. Papa John called it "heartwarming." I say it was small town America at its best.
