Wednesday, March 3, 2010

Field Lickers

That's what I thought my father-in-law said on Sunday night.

The scene: Six of us sitting around a dining room table enjoying a fabulous meal of soup and cake prepared by Jane. Dena and I, Jane and Darren, and Dena's mom and dad were stuffed and happy. In fact, we were having some innocent chatter before playing a fun game a lot like "Scattergories."

The idle conversation shifted topics over time like the tides that we're all looking forward to at Hatteras this summer. One of the topics was local establishments. My untrained ear heard someone ask "How many Yogis were there? One or two?" I took this to mean the Yogi Bear campground, a place that I've seen a sign for multiple times but never personally set foot in.

There were a few seconds of quiet clatter as dishes were moved about. Then suddenly, in my left ear...

"FIELD lickers!" Dad said.

My brain swiveled 360 degrees trying to process this term. My first instinct, fortunately, was to bite my tongue and suppress a snort. As the big-city boy in the family, it occasionally happens that foreign phrases find my ears. The fact that no one else in the room raised an eyebrow in the next microsecond was enough to convince me that something like that had just happened. In the next instant I concluded that this was not some kind of insult like "ditch digger" or "sonofabitch," but was actually "Field Liquors" - some local establishment. Dena confirmed this in the car on the way home.

Yet another memorable Goodfield history lesson!

3 comments:

Anonymous said...

AW! I MISSED it!! Had there been more ears present, I'm sure thunderous laughter would have ensued!

It's a little like "French Lick Indiana....Home of Larry Bird!"

(again, ask dena!)

Oh, and thanks for the laugh this morning...I needed it!

freid207 said...

This had me chuckling...of course, the repast would have been improved had we not had to dodge dive-bombing Asian beetles. (All together now...."Aaaahhhh...country living!") Thanks for indulging in my tribute to the "old country"...only, if I had really been honoring MY old country, the meal would have been beer, bratwurst, spatzle, schnitzle, and sauerkraut.

Joe McDonald said...

Did they have Andes mints in the old country? How'd you know those are my favorites? Super job, that was probably the most fun game I've played all year. I need more people in my life who love to play them!

Oh by the way, turns out that there most certainly IS a "Toledo, Illinois"!