The Family *roll

This weekend was DJJD here in Northfield, Minnesota. No, not WWJD (it’s not that kind of town), but DJJD: Defeat of Jesse James Days. For those of you not intimately familiar with the history of Northfield and the James-Younger gang, Northfield was the site of a James-Yonger gang robbery that was successfully aborted by the townspeople. Apparently, the unsuccessful robbery led to the eventual downfall of the gang and the arrest of its members. This is why in Northfield we have Jesse James Bowling Lanes, the James Gang Coffee House, the James Gang Hideaway Cafe and the t-shirts in the gift shops echo the words of that fateful day in 1876: “Get your guns boys, they’re robbing the bank”.

We quickly realized Defeat of Jesse James Days (such a mouthful!) is a big deal in Northfield. Kathy and Bridget were in town for the weekend and we attended the bank raid re-enactment – 4 times a day every day during DJJD – complete with pistol fire (and ear-plugs for the babe), the craft show in Central Park, the arts and crafts fair along the riverfront, two rounds of bingo in the town square, strolled through a midway-full of kiddie rides and games and patronized concessions downtown selling deep-fried foods on stick. Most memorably, we ate “De-Feet of Jesse James” which are flesh-colored, life-sized donuts in the shape of a foot made by the incomparable Quality Bakery. They’re delicious.

The culmination of DJJD is the parade which begins on the southern end of Division Street which is 20 yards or so from our house. While walking the dog last night, we noticed that almost half of the street frontage had been “reserved” with picnic blankets and folding chairs. By this morning, the entire curbside of Division Street was filled with reserved spots. When the parade started at 2pm, the curb was 2-4 people deep. We sat on the bank of a neighbor’s lawn (the perks of having neighbors with parade frontage) and sat for 1 1/2 hours as marching bands, cheerleaders, dancers, clowns, Lions and Knights of Columbus, draft horses and local businesses paraded by. The highlight were waving “Queens” and “Princesses”. We’re not quite sure how these royals achieve their status but they serve as sequined and highly made-up symbols of their respective town’s yearly festivities. We already knew the DJJD Queen and Princesses well (they were escorted around the festivities in the “royal” golf cart with tiaras, cowboy boots and tight jeans) but learned that there were also similar royals throughout Rice county.

We enjoyed every pistol-cracking moment of DJJD. There was a lot of kitsch but also an impressive amount of community pride, especially the local history.

Sleep Update: We’re on day 5 of the new regime and things are going swimmingly. For the past three nights, Ellie has gone down without a single peep and sleeps 5-6 hours at first and then wakes up twice for a quick meal before waking up for good at 7am. It’s just wonderful. No more middle-of-the-night marathon breastfeeding sessions or shifting of sleeping baby from lap to crib every 3 hours. Best of all, Eleanor herself is full of smiles and wiggles and is completely darling.