Happy birthday, Dave!

My friend, Dave, held his annual birthday pig-picking today, and it was a fun affair indeed.  Many, many people attended, many brought food to share, and Dave provided the cooked pig.  Kyle and I broke it down and sent tray after tray of meat upstairs to the hungry crowd, folks mingled and chatted, and everyone seemed to have a very good time.

I've been going to this party for something like 32 years, give or take.  People have come and gone from the party crowd, but many regulars have stayed throughout the years.  Some people I met there as kids now attend with their children.  The party serves as a reminder and celebration of not just age but also of the value of being part of a community, however odd that community may be and however infrequently it may gather.

So, Dave, happy birthday, and for both of us--for all of us who attend--I hope you keep holding the pig-picking for years and years and years to come.

The birthday pig-picking

At a time near his birthday each year, Dave holds a celebratory pig-picking.  A group of us gather at his house to enjoy an entire slow-cooked pig, as well as various dishes that people bring as contributions to the meal.  This year's pig-picking took place today, and it was a fine example of its type.

Dozens of folks showed up to enjoy the party and the meal, and I have to say that it was a particularly delicious pig.  Kyle and I cut up the meat today, a process that involves standing over a low table and hacking away at a beast that deserves better butchering skills than we possess--but that was incredibly tasty nonetheless.  I meant to take pictures, but I messed up and failed to do so.  Sorry about that.

I've been going to these events for a few decades now, and I've always enjoyed them.  Most of all, I'm struck time and again by how very lucky I am to have friends with whom I get to enjoy a broad range of traditions.

Happy birthday, Dave!

This year's pig

looked good and tasted better.

Click an image to see a larger version.

I'm talking here about the pig a large group of us enjoyed today at Dave Drake's annual birthday pig-picking.  The cut bit in the shot above is where Dave

and several others, including me, enjoyed early tastes of the slow-cooked meat.  Wow, was it good--possibly the best one I've ever had at Dave's.

Many people brought dishes to share, we all talked, Dave opened presents, and everyone seemed to have a great time.  Among the dishes were many delicious desserts, including the main birthday cake, which Jo baked.

I hope to be lucky enough to share many, many more birthday celebrations with Dave.

Pig-picking 2013

Today, in keeping with another of our annual traditions, something approaching a hundred of us gathered at Dave's to celebrate his birthday with his annual pig-picking, an event he has been holding since before I met him.  We gather, chat, consume all sorts of foods that we bring, and chow down on the main attraction, a full pig.

Click on a photo to see a larger version.

Later, Kyle and I carved the pig and turned it into chunks and strings of pork on huge platters full of meat, but right after the pig arrived the only way to taste it was to cut a piece yourself, as Dave and Kyle are doing here. 

The bits we've already cut are parts of the tenderloin, the most amazingly delicious, moist meat you can get from this pig.

As the expression on Kyle's face suggests, he was a happy camper, as were the rest of us who had early tastes.  Damn, that meat was good.

Bill has, from time to time, mocked me for being "tradition boy," and in some ways he is right:  a great many traditions mark the passage of my years.  I'm okay with that, though, because the traditions are good things, grounding forces that connect me to this place, to these people, to this bit of land where I live. I love to travel, and I plan to do so frequently for the rest of my life, but I also love having a home, a place where I have those connections, those roots.  I don't see the two, travel and connection, as at all contradictory, so I embrace being both tradition boy and travel boy. 

I thank Dave and Jo for hosting this tradition, and I sincerely hope to get to enjoy it for many, many years to come.