The Great Minnesota Get-together
What a weekend it’s been. My wife, son, and I decided to take a chance with the rainy weather forecast yesterday and go to the Minnesota State Fair for a few hours. It was as crowded as I’ve ever seen it despite the gloomy weather.
For those of you who’ve never been, our fair is all about the food which basically consists of deep fried everything on a stick. I had to take a picture of the deep fried Buckeye vendor here because of the Ohio connection (of course). For those of you who don’t know, buckeyes are like Reeses peanut butter cups only in spherical form. It’s a rare sight to see this candy anywhere outside of Ohio. I had to smile at this little reminder of the place I was born.
Our fair lasts for two weeks and my wife and I will likely be back once more before the place is shuttered for another year. For me the people-watching is every bit as good as the food.
The Missing Walton Link
My brother and I have been piecing together our family tree for nearly twenty years. We’ve discovered our American roots run deep. Our ancestors immigrated to the colonies in the late 1600s from Oxhill Parish in Warwickshire, England.
We hit a huge genealogical void between the Revolutionary War and the Civil War (late 1700’s to mid 1800’s). Now, I’m happy to say this void has been filled.
It all began after a Google search of our great-great-great-great-grandfather William Walton’s burial place, as listed on his death certificate, of “Friends Ground Byberry.”
As it turns out this is a Quaker cemetery. Yes, our ancestors were Quakers and this is why they fled England so early, to escape religious persecution!
Over the past week I've discovered hundreds of cousins who are all descendants of William and his other three brothers. The great news is the Quakers are excellent record keepers so we have a wealth of information to sort through as well as new relatives to meet on Facebook. We were also invited to the 350th anniversary of the Waltons' arrival to America which is scheduled for 2033.
My Experience With Midjourney
Last but not least I’d like to thank @bozz for introducing me to the AI-art generating platform Midjourney. This amazing AI takes any text you feed it and creates original art based on those prompts.
Over the past few days I’ve been feeding it my poems and it’s been creating some mind-blowing works of art. It’s been a lot of fun working with it.
My plan over the coming weeks is to release a series of ten of my original poems paired with corresponding AI-generated art. I’ll be offering these up for auction eventually with a portion of the proceeds going to charity. More on this project soon to come.
Enjoy the rest of your weekend! Be well.
Poetry should move us, it should change us, it should glitch our brains, shift our moods to another frequency. Poetry should evoke feelings of melancholy, whimsy, it should remind us what it feels like to be in love, or cause us to think about something in a completely different way. I view poetry, and all art really, as a temporary and fragile bridge between our world and a more pure and refined one. This is a world we could bring into creation if enough of us believed in it. This book is ephemera, destined to end up forgotten, lingering on some dusty shelf or tucked away in a dark attic. Yet the words, they will live on in memory. I hope these words become a part of you, bubble up into your memory when you least expect them to and make you feel a little more alive.
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Let’s Keep In Touch
This (the first photo in the post) reminds me of my first Ferris wheel ride on 2021.12.21 in Szolnok, Hungary. Mostly pleasant memories. I had fears about it initially, but those fears quickly disappeared. While the Ferris wheel may look very fast from the outside, it feels very slow from the inside. I barely felt it moving. So I had plenty of time to watch the city from above. My video about it is still available on 3Speak (Threespeak): My first Ferris wheel ride in my life! - One ride on the Szolnok Eye in Hungary (video) (2021.12.21).
Yes, I remember your post about the Ferris wheel! I'm glad you tried it. We didn't ride any of the rides this time but might next week.
I hope you left the Fair before the storm hit. Out in the western suburbs, it was like a tropical monsoon, branches flying through the air amid a torrential downpour.
We got rained on a little bit but just ducked into one of the buildings until it quit. Thankfully we left before the monstrous storm hit later in the evening. I had the new car parked in a lot here in Cathedral Hill and it was sitting in almost five inches of water because the storm sewers couldn't keep up.
That looks like a good time! I don't suppose they were selling street corn? I've been wanting to try it ever since that adorable little boy on TikTok talked it way up! We'll be heading to NY State fair next Sunday, my son is competing in the big arm wrestling event there :) Maybe I'll find some of that delicious corn there 😆
https://www.tiktok.com/t/ZTRfE9tMr/
It was fun! I'm pretty sure you can find that corn there. I like regular old sweet corn with butter though. That's my jam. : ) I hope your son does well and you all enjoy your fair!
You really can't go wrong with regular old sweet corn, it's one of my favorite foods- especially from the Amish, I could almost eat it raw, and I definitely don't need the butter yum!
But I feel I must try the street corn once in my life XD
It's one of my favorite things too! You'll love the street corn. We have a huge Mexican community here in St. Paul and you can find it everywhere. It's practically a meal with all of the toppings.
Dang, 350 years! That is crazy! I guess that makes sense though if they came over here that long ago. I can't tell you the last time I have been to the fair. It is usually so hot and crowded. I used to love going through the exhibit buildings and getting all of the free keychains and stickers and stuff.
It'll be 350 years in 2033! That's crazy to think about. There are a zillion Williams in our lineage and one of them (along with one other brother) left England in the late 17th century. I think between the English church records and the Quaker records we've stumbled onto stateside, we're going to be able to piece together our entire genealogical paternal line. From what we've uncovered two Jewish brothers from Spain immigrated to Ireland to escape persecution and then eventually settled in England in the 1400's. That's how the Waltons ended up in England. We come from a long line of rebels, apparently.
Crowded it was! The pictures don't really show the extent of the humanity there yesterday but we were packed in like sardines.
That is really cool. My sister has done a bunch of the genological stuff with our family, but I have never really asked about it.
Nice! It's fun to learn about. It allows you to know yourself on a deeper level. I didn't really "get" that until I went through the process. So much of our personalities are driven by our DNA.
Very intersting!
I love that there's cable cars overhead in your first image, it looks like it was a great fair. I haven't been to something like this in so long.
Researching family lineage can be very interesting and exciting, it looks like you had a wonderful breakthrough here and added many to your family that you didn't know. Enjoy it Eric, it's nice to find your roots.
We have a pretty good fair! The tradition of it is a huge deal here. I think it's funny how it's mostly all about the food here. It wasn't so much that way in Ohio, where I was born and raised.
Thank you! Genealogy is fun and frustrating at times but the end product will be something to pass to future generations.
I'm not surprised at all about the food being one of the main attractions, it must be really good! That is so nice, that you will be able to give your children a better representation of their history, definitely worth the effort you've put in.
Some of it's good and most of it's extremely unhealthy. Lol. Yes, I'm really looking at the time I'm putting in as an investment. So many Americans have no idea about their genealogical heritage more than a couple of generations back.
Hi Eric, you and your family are lucky to be able to enjoy the exhibition which is held once a year. I think you will find a lot of good things there. Furthermore, I congratulate you and your brother on rediscovering the Walton family tree. surely you will meet many people who are bloody Walton and of course this will strengthen your brotherhood. Have a nice day, Eric.
Thank you Eliana! The genealogy work is definitely rewarding and will be a gift to give future generations. I hope you enjoy your week!
Buckeyes:Ohio remind me of BeaverTails:Ottawa. (Doughnut pastry, fried flat then covered in cinnamon-sugar). They are a treat that you can get (in different forms) elsewhere. But, the "original" version is the best. :-). My favourite is having it covered in hazelnut spread.
I'm looking forward to seeing your Midjourney visual's. It intrigues me to think of what it will do with a poem.
It makes me happy that these regional items/differences still exist. That sounds delicious!
I'm REALLY having fun with it. Some of the art is right on and jives with the poetry at first glance and some of them you really have to think about.
I would love to visit the fair too. This looks so much fun. I can stand there and keep watching everyone on the ground floor and the upper part hahahaha.
Wow. That must have been a lot of hard work to find your ancestral lineage. 350th anniversary of the Waltons' arrival to America? Scheduled for 2033? Wow.
I can tell you had fun at the fair and I hope the weather forecast didn't have the last laugh on you with the downpour coming hard on you sir? 🤣😂
It can be a lot of fun (or like hell) depending on the weather. Lol. Imagine hundreds of thousands of people crammed shoulder to shoulder during the hottest and most humid time of the year. It's much better if the temperatures are cooler or if there's a little cloud cover. We went back yesterday for a few more hours. Thankfully we didn't get rained on too much that first visit. We had severe thunderstorms and tornado warnings that evening though.
It's literally taken us decades to gather this much information on our family. Thankfully we live in the age of the internet or it would have probably taken lifetimes.
Wow...you got beaten by the rain the first visit. So sorry about that. You must have found a cover around there. Yes, it's much better when the weather is cooler...it makes the whole experience more enjoyable. Glad you still went back there...says a lot about how much you are enjoying it.
Thank God for the internet...no doubt... It would have taken a lifetime and more stress to gather that much. The big reunion awaits...😍😍😍
The place really looks nice and attractive to visit which I believe you enjoyed your outing there
Thanks!
We have such food fairs in my country. However, the foods of fairs are related to a specific city or a region. They last almost a week.
Very nice! Our fair lasts two weeks and is the official end of summer here in this part of our country.
Colorado State fair is under way!
First time of me hearing about midjourney. Quite really interesting to hear about the platform. Will definitely do a lot of research on it to know more about it
Amazing
Thank you.
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