BY ASHLEY LODATO
Three summer favorites make up the theme of this week’s column: beer, fishing and ice cream.
First, Laurel Canan’s Laurelstein Brewery continues to garner accolades and national awards. Most recently, Laurelstein’s Lincoln Lager – a Bohemian Pilsner – was deemed the second-best Pilsner in the Master Championship of Amateur Brewing. A similar brew last summer, which took a first in category and second in show, qualified for entry for the national round. In one of life’s delightful little ironies, the officiant for the Master Championship contest is named John Peed.
Moving on to fishing, the banks of the pond at the Winthrop Hatchery were lined with little anglers on Saturday (June 8) during National Free Fishing Day, and a serious number of enormous trout were pulled out. Two little kids landed 9-pounders and a bunch of others pulled in 4- and 5-pounders.
Most kids were assisted by their parents, but Cymone Van Marter’s dad was busy volunteering at the event, so 10-year-old Cymone was fishing solo. She managed to land a 4-pound trout, then looked around for a rock to kill it with. The only rock close at hand was about the size of an apricot, but Cymone gamely thwacked the fish as hard as she could, over and over, but her little stone was no match for the big fish.
Just as it became clear that the tiny rock wasn’t quite going to do the job, a volunteer noticed Cymone and came over with a bonker (the official term used by the fisheries people) and dispatched the fish with a solid blow.
And now for ice cream. If you were from Macedonia or Uzbekistan and you wanted a summer job, and you were a young adult young enough that celebrating your birthday in a fun and social way actually still mattered, what place of employment would be most appealing to you? Sheri’s Sweet Shoppe, that’s what!
At a visit to Sheri’s the other night, my family and the other cone-lickers present had the pleasure of watching a new employee from Macedonia get the birthday song sung to him in English by other staff with a variety of accents. Apparently all of the Eastern Europeans scooping at Sheri’s this summer will celebrate their birthdays during their time in Winthrop, so let’s all learn how to say “sreken rodenden” and “tug’ilgan kuningiz bilan.”
