Lawn party in the Hoosier State

An outdoor, graduation-type party in Indiana, one of thousands held this time of year on a June weekend -

Drive down a country highway, past reservoirs and people mowing lawns. Farther out in the country, men in black hats and coats drive Amish buggies past homes with no electrical wiring. Boys and girls drive small horse and pony carts. The field horses, done working for the day, are the beautiful, large blond Percherons.

The house, not all that far from the Ohio state line, is so remote the roads are newly (horrors) applied with chip and seal (translation: is that oil? tar? straw? arrgh). However, once finding the farm-ette, any man would love the huge pole barn and various man toys included. Kids take off for the swimming pool as I survey the food laid out down long tables in the breezy, newish barn- burgers, veggies and salads, chips and dips, homemade cookies. Three kinds of cake. Very cold keg of beer, even though it's hot out. Hoosier outdoor party.

This is great - large cloud formations on the horizons, people of all ages playing volleyball on the lawn, rotating through, and really 'setting' the ball high in the open sky. Down the lawn, an Indiana favorite - corn hole. Of course, this is a wooden-framed bean bag toss set-up - played passionately in Midwestern driveways and on lawns for hours on end. A non-urban version of boccie? or shuffleboard? A twist on horseshoes? Or more importantly, do you suppose they just used to pitch an ear of corn into a hole of some kind, and thusly it was named? I mean, please -

Swimming pool fun involves teen boys joining arms to launch smaller kids across the pool - this actually really looks like fun. With daylight savings time, we see a beautiful long sunset with light until 9:30, and subdued light until 10 p.m., continuing with the rising of the full June strawberry moon.

This was a great party. I took off about 10, before it got much darker driving and to avoid the encroaching mosquitoes. I also got out of the way of burly firefighters beginning to grab at each other, trying to toss one another in the soon-to-be-vacated pool. Ya gotta just let the boys be boys, and the men have their fun once in a while. Time to slide on out and down the road. Thanks for the excellent eats and fellowship, and see you on the flip side. Tailwind, out.