This past Sunday I spent the majority of the day selling hot dogs at our city’s annual street fair. I helped out in the men’s barbershop chorus booth. They pay the women’s chorus a portion of the profits for helping them out. Anyway, these were the famous Canadian Jumbo hot dogs. I used to love to eat them before I knew how bad they were for me (and anyone else). They used to be made from all beef. Now, since the Mad Cow scare, they are made from all pork. They did smell mighty tasty, though. I think last year I did eat one while selling. This year I made sure I filled up with a lamb chop and a banana before heading for the fair. That helped keep the temptation down to a minimum. While working, I looked up and down the food vendor strip at the choices people had to eat. Beside us was a trailer selling elephant ears. Sugar and wheat. Across the way was a Vietnamese booth. There probably was some beef available over there, but it would have been difficult to determine what other ingredients were used . I saw people walking by with corn on the cob. Fine for A-types, but I’m sure half the folks were O’s and others. There were hamburgers, corn dogs, deep-fried vegetables, strawberry shortcakes and other sorts of delicious-looking desserts. Lots of wheat and sugar. And of course, every booth had the obligatory array of soft drinks. I would hope that most of the folks taking in these foods were eating them for a ‘special occasion’. But, from the looks of fully one-third of them, I think it was normal fare for them. There were many overweight and obese people walking around with these foods in their hands.

So, I was peddling poison for profit. Granted it was a non-profit group I was working for, and I did feel obligated to help. It just seems overwhelming to me that there are so many people out there that cannot relate what they put into their mouths with the state of their health. And that leads us to the current health care situation.........but I’m not going there in this blog.

I’m traveling to Greenville, SC this week for barbershop school. We’ll be studying any and all things related to barbershop music. I’m pretty psyched for it. It’s being held on a college campus, so the food will be presented cafeteria style. I’m hoping there are enough choices of compliant foods available. I’ll take a few Unibars along just in case. I’m hoping my resolve will last through the temptations. Sometimes it’s easy, like at the street fair this weekend. Sometimes are tougher.