Sunday, May 03, 2009

DAY 122: Derby Day


May 2 048, originally uploaded by Kikigill.

In the past, Derby Day was a big deal. Back then, it was a party on the lawn in Chappaqua (where my grandparents lived). They would have a bunch of people over, make mint juleps with fresh mint and erect a scoreboard for tracking bets. My grandfather would figure all the odds...he was quite a mathematician. He would tally up his own parimutuel betting which added to the fun already started by the mint juleps, I imagine.

My favorite story my grandmother just told me the other day. Apparently, one year, some friends of her father came out of New York City for the big shin dig. They had no idea what a derby party was, so they came wearing derby hats. I would have loved to have been there that day!

1 comment:

Lorraine said...

The joke is apparently on me, because I don't even know what a derby hat is, much less why you don't wear it to a party!