Greek Fest

Photo by Anniebluesky

My families love, and I do mean love, for Greek festivals comes from a long, loving relationship our daughter had with a Greek Man. You see she worked with a Greek family who owned a small restaurant in Gulf Breeze, Florida. When she first moved to Florida she started to look for work and the owner of the place told her to come back tomorrow, she went back the next day and had a job. Now I use the term job loosely because he treated her like his daughter. But she loved him like the Greek he was, she loved this Greek man. She worked alongside him for years making all kinds of authentic Greek foods listening to his stories of his childhood in Greece. They became very close and through that relationship my wife and I became good friends with him also. I would stop by the restaurant after school and help a little bit with whatever needed to be done and Mr. Greek would provide lunch for me most of the time free of charge. We went to Greek festivals and watched his children dance. They were awesome dancers and we were proud of them like they were our own children. Our daughter would partake in the Ouzo and lust after the Greek men in Toga's.

We were always a bit envious of their sense of belonging (I am referring to the Greeks here), their history, their oneness because they all share a common heritage. We are of European decent but none of the contributing countries contributed enough for us to declare I am "X." Where X equals a country we could declare we are from. All of the Greeks we knew were very kind and giving. The men were the best of friends and fought like they were still teenagers. There were times that grown men over the age of forty would have a tiff and not speak for months. Only to be found together again months later drinking and laughing after having made up. I was never privy to a Greek make up but I would have loved to seen one. The women on the other hand, well they are treated a little differently but they are a stoic bunch, strong and opinionated. When Ya-Ya was at the restaurant you had to watch what you said and did.

The Greek Fest is in Saint Augustine this weekend and we had to stop by. We were lucky enough to see the kids dancing their traditional dances. I have always liked it when someone runs out while they are dancing and showers them with money. That makes me smile every time. We picked up a few food items and some wedding cookies. The whole time I kept thinking about our daughter who came as close as anybody I know to becoming Greek without having Greek blood. She would have cried a few tears today at the Greek festival for the Festivals she has missed and the people whom she loved. It tugged at both of our hearts and made us miss a place we dearly loved.

I am a little envious of him being raised in such a beautiful place.

picture by Maria and Thilo

Pensacola Greek Festival, November 14-16th

There was also a Shrimp festival back home on the Gulf Coast this weekend. What a weekend for festivals huh?