rice paper candy :: sweet memory {still + life}

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In 1982 the World's Fair came to my (near) hometown of Knoxville, Tennessee. It was A. Big. Deal. Do we have World's Fairs anymore? I haven't heard in ages. The icon of our World's Fair was the Sunsphere, which still stands proudly in Knoxville. It had gone into decline for a number of years, but has been revitalized within the last decade.

World's Fair fever swept through the region. I was 12 and went many times, sometimes with school groups, sometimes with my family. I have distinct memories of wandering through the exhibits (Australia was a favorite) with friends, perhaps experiencing that first taste of freedom in the big city. "Meet us back here at 9:30." No cell phones, no way to keep tabs.

Bliss.

Is it any wonder that one of my favorite Simpsons' episodes was Bart on the Road? (It's definitely in my top three!) But World's Fair Fever wasn't relegated to the safe confines of World's Fair Park. Every where you turned, there was an explosion of cultural references, and wandering our local department store one day, I stumbled across these Japanese rice candies. I must have tried them at the Fair at some point. The memory dims, but I think they handed them out at the Japanese Pavilion. I do have a distinct memory of standing in the gift-y section of Proffitt's Department Store and finding the candies there. Such treasure.
I had that same feeling when we stumbled on them again in World Market a couple of weeks ago.

What's so special about them? Not much. Slightly gummy, barely sweet with a rice paper wrapper that melts in your mouth (!). Magic to a girl of 12 who is discovering a world beyond the boundaries of the mountains that rim her small southeastern town.

weekend recap, perception_collection recap, may 5

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1. lilacs from Neel's garden | 2. quiet night | 3. baseball saturday | 4. mint julep | 5. sunny window | 6. baseball sunday

1. lilacs from Neel's garden | 2. quiet night | 3. baseball saturday | 4. mint julep | 5. sunny window | 6. baseball sunday

All baseball all the time this weekend. Bear with me for a moment here. Starting with a loss that felt like a win on Saturday (because Cal had a great game... not that that's all that matters) and a (big) win that felt like a loss on Sunday because the whole game seemed to have a dark cloud over it. Did you know... there's a rule in Little League that only one coach can be on the field at a time wearing flip flops? So our coaches started the game with a dust up with the umps about that.

Despite tons of runs for us, things went downhill from there. Our pitcher hit one of their batters in the leg. It happens. No big deal. But the next time that guy got up to hit, our pitcher must have been spooked a little because he hit him again, this time clipping the back of his helmet. Yikes! The parents from the other team? Yelling, "Dust it off!" Like he was a toddler with a skinned knee. Well, the parents on our side of the field weren't impressed with that. You get hit in the head, you should sit.

That same kid pitched the next inning, and after getting walked at his at bat, Cal stole second. Their catcher tried to throw him out and ended up beaming their pitcher in the face. Same kid who'd been hit twice before! It was bad. The ball hit his temple and ricocheted off.

Everything came to an eerily silent halt. All the coaches came over as the kid stood there weaving a bit. Finally they took him off the field and sat him down with a pack of ice. !! One of our moms went over and said, "I will call 911 for you." Apparently he didn't even know where he was.

After that, nothing felt right. It took forever to restart the game (long enough to bring the kids off the field and out of the sun), and no one could do anything. Both teams were rattled. The umps should have ended it then and there, but for some reason they kept it going for another inning before finally calling it. Three innings. That's all we played. We won, 18-10. And you know what else? We play them again on Wednesday. Great.

 

Bonus section: Gratitude: cuelifephoto | edenhelsley | maggiemuses

Bonus section: Gratitude: cuelifephoto | edenhelsley | maggiemuses

You guyyyyyyys... My heart is so full when I think about how much fun we had during #perception_collection. I just have no words. I said on Friday, and I'll say it again, watching my feed fill with all of your interpretations of the prompts and watching you support each other as you moved through each of the prompts... well, it moved me so much. Christine and I had so much fun putting it together, and we were totally overwhelmed at the response! We'll be back! We're working hard on assembling more prompts for you, so mark your calendars for June 27-July 11. Let's celebrate summer with some great photography, shall we? Christine's recap is over at The Plumed Nest, so go check out more great photos there.