Potato Days!

Barnesville, Minn., estimated population of 2,295, lies about 30 miles east of Fargo along I-94. Their annual big festival is Potato Days, and it's today and tomorrow. Jen's been looking forward to this for quite some time. When she and I married sixteen years ago, I was given a variety of potato mashers by various members of her family, with the instruction that mashed potatoes were pretty much all she needed to be a happy woman.

We went this afternoon, because two top events were being held tonight – the french-fry giveaway and, more importantly, mashed potato wrestling (right). Some show called "Odd America" was taping at the beginning, and they sent two of their guys into the ring to wrestle some Minnesota guys. The general tone was closer to pro wrestling than Olympic wrestling. For some odd reason, most of the matchups were husband vs. wife, or boyfriend vs. girlfriend (though the two pictured are local high-school female softball players...).

The web site of the festival takes pains to point out that it's not real mashed potatoes: "Actually, it is the floor sweepings from a plant, which are not edible, or outdated flakes that are no longer saleable. No food is being wasted, as the leftover potato mixture is fed to local cattle." I'm actually kind of glad they told us that – Jen mentioned it as we were driving there, and I, having not seen it before, was relieved – it seemed out of character for farmers to just toss that much food in a ring.

We also took a relaxing hayride on a tour of historic Barnesville. We saw many of Barnesville's oldest homes, churches converted into homes, and Blue Eagle Lake, constructed during the Depression by WPA workers and so named after the blue eagle in the National Recovery Administration logo (right). Kind of touching, really – I have difficulty imagining a place in America nowadays that would choose to name something like that after a federal agency.

The free "French Fry Feed" was also good, though just before they started handing them out, a cloud of flying ants descended on downtown Barnesville. And you know how much the kids love bugs. As we stood in line, the five of us swatted bugs off each other and shared a delicious potato sausage wrapped in lefse, as if it were a burrito. We left pretty soon after that. Did I mention that the kids hate bugs?