Words Like Locusts Flew From Her Fingers

Corn Days

The Rake – Hardcore Corn: “For me, it was Corn Days in Long Lake, where our corner was prime squatting for the parade, my sister was a Corn Princess, and for two days you could eat all the corn you could handle for $1.50. “

I don’t think I ever knew Stephanie March, the author of this piece, though I might be wrong about that. I’ve forgotten so many people over the years. I am also from Long Lake in Minnesota, though. Long Lake is part of Orono, you see. While, I didn’t actually live in Long Lake, it was the closest thing to a town that was near by. Actually, I grew up in a house that is situated pretty much halfway between Long Lake and Crystal Bay–both part of what was then the Village of Orono. My mailing address was Wayzata, though. It was all very confusing. It still is.

I may have forgotten Stephanie (or not), but I haven’t forgotten Corn Days. I was there when it was first starting out as a church-related festival. It’s apparently still put on by the local Catholic church–St. George’s.

I don’t remember the corn being all that delicious. I think a lot of times they just used field corn–the kind you feed to livestock–instead of actual sweet corn. The idea being, I suppose, that if you slather enough butter and salt on it, pretty much anything will taste good. It doesn’t hurt if you’ve also already made a few trips to “Das Biergarten” before digging into the corn.

I wonder if they still have the Polka Mass during Corn Days weekend. I never went–wasn’t Catholic at the time–but I always wanted to. Just the idea of it…a Polka Mass…intrigues.

For the most part, my Corn Days activity was limited to Biergarten, eating corn, and maybe dancing like an Egyptian at the big street dance they usually had on Saturday night. One year though I got to be in the parade! Oooooo! My then husband, Chad, was trying to start up a solar panel business (he was, alas, way ahead of his time) and we kitted out his truck with solar panels and solar-related decorations and such. We dressed up an acquaintance’s cute little kid and called her the “sun princess” and rode in the parade. This was more than 20 years ago but, amazingly, every now and then when I’m back in Long Lake I’ll run into someone who mentions it. Hm.