Frederick, Maryland Area Meeting

The annual Frederick Area Meeting took place on Saturday,September 8, 2012 at Calvary United Methodist Church. Sixteen ringers from Pittsburgh,Philadelphia, New York , Frederick and Washington attended at various timesduring the day. Everyone at all levelsgot plenty of chances to ring and it was good to see old friends again. The second Saturday in September is also thedate of Frederick's annual "In the Street" festival which blocks offmany downtown streets with food, crafts and music stalls, which made getting toand parking at the church a bit of a challenge for those of us who forgot aboutthe festival!

At lunch everyoneheaded to restaurants in Frederick; most going to the Brewer's Alley restaurantfor their food and excellent beer made on the premises. When we were done eating and tried to leavethe bar area was packed; we learned why soon enough when we got outside andfound that the humid and sultry day had been replaced by the "Behind theFalls" tour at Niagara minus the raincoats. The skies had opened up, the booths wereabandoned, and everyone on the street who couldn't get inside somewhere waspressed against a walls of a building hoping to find a few square millimetersof dryness. We had no choice but to makeour way back to Calvary, recognizing that you can only get so wet, and afterthat it doesn't matter. But once westarted ringing again everyone dried off - except for those who had to leaveearly for other obligations, such as a wedding ringing engagement at theWashington National Cathedral, who got wet all over again upon leaving thechurch.

Thanks to Bruce and Eileen Butler for running the event, toAlice Zalatoris (whose home tower is Frederick) for hosting us, and to all theothers who came and made the outing fun and successful: Ross Finbow, Bill Kollar, Eileen Latham, RoyLatham, Carleton MacDonald, Sue O'Neill, Quilla Roth, Abby Timmel, Paul Timmel,Don Trumpler, Elisabeth Trumpler, Mark Gosden and Nick Wells. Apologies for anyone that was overlooked.