Week 4: Dr. Martin Luther Evangelical Lutheran

Okay, I've been a little distracted and haven't kept up with the Fish Fry blog.....sorry!

So February 29 found us at Dr Martin Luther Evangelical Lutheran Church on Ridge Road in Brooklyn.

The atmosphere TOTALLY reminded me of the dinners at the protestant churches of my childhood in Ashtabula county, where the same spaces are used for all sorts of different gatherings. The room where we had dinner is clearly usually divided (by those collapsible walls I somehow associate with 1974) into little Sunday School classrooms, with blackboards hanging lower on the walls than I've ever seen anywhere else and little-kid-Sunday-School crafts hanging on the walls and even from the light fixtures!

On this day, though, the walls were pushed back as far as they could go to allow for the tables to be set up; the hallway was full of bake sales/chocolate candy sales/etc; and a wonderfully friendly and helpful woman welcomed us, explaining the many options on the plentiful menu.

All told, the food was TERRIFIC. I somehow ended up with the double-slaw Matt created when he emptied one container into another because he wanted the paper cup to carry tartar sauce back to the table (?!?)....ridiculous on both of our parts, probably, huh? :)

We loved the homemade kolache so much that it didn't really matter all that much what the purple stuff OR the yellow stuff was (blueberry and pineapple, it turns out. Some darling woman kept running back to the kitchen to get answers to our ludicrous queries.)

Bonus fun of the Fry: t-shirt reading. We took in quite a lot of t-shirt "literature" this time around (have I already mentioned the 70s?)

So at one point Matt, who btw was raised as a Lutheran, reads the word YMBALI emblazoned on the t-shirt of a person walking toward him and wonders what African language the word is from, and what it might mean. Not wanting to stare, I don't turn around to see this person, as I'm facing the other way and it's a small space.

Moments later, I turn and we both read the back of a t-shirt of someone sitting with their back to us; this t-shirt hybridizes Letterman's Top Ten List with Foxworthy's pre-5th grade antic, listing top ten ways to complete the sentence "You might be a Lutheran if..."

Neither of us can read the top ten list without getting uncomfortably close to the wearer, of course.

What I learned, however, is that YMBALI is not African for anything. It is Lutheran for "You might be a Lutheran if...."

These little cultural tidbits are a really important part of the Fish Fry Foray experience. We learn a lot of weird, random, cool stuff by going on this annual pilgrimage. Aren't you glad you're along for the ride?

:)