My Mom & I arrived at the lecture at around 12:15 on Saturday. At first, there was a boring 10 minutes where the Library employees patted themselves on the back for having this shindig. During that time, I spied the main attraction standing about 15 feet away from where I was sitting. He blended in perfectly with the crowd. I don't think anyone but me saw him standing over there very quietly. When not in his usual goofy "get-up" for his show, he's the most normal looking guy, and not bad looking at that. Better in person than in the pics I'm about to show you though.
The set was pretty cool. Very mad scientist-y:
I was struck by how strong of a Christian Alton is. Of course, that's not really surprising since he was raised in the Bible Belt.
He does live in Marietta, by the way, I just don't know where. His wife and daughter were there. His daughter is such a cute little girl.
Alton is not easy to photograph. He moves around way too much when he's giving a lecture. Not one to sit still. He was extremely funny. He got on his soapbox about several things: Chili from China, Chicken's not really having fingers, How stupid we are for buying bottled water and both paying too much for it and ruining the environment, how lawyers are food, etc. It was more of a standup comedy routine for the first half. The second half was all Q & A. He accepted questions from the audience.
The lecture ended at 2:00pm and we got in line to get a cookbook signed. At about 3:30, we finally got up to him. Yes, an hour and a half. Can you believe it? But! In his defense, he took the time out to shake every single person's hand. He asked our names and then made sure to use them the entire time we were speaking with him. He was especially great with the children that went up to meet him. He dropped everything to speak with them. I heard people grumbling about that, but anyone who will spend that much time to talk to a child is my hero.
See that little girl? She made the picture on the table as a gift for him. He made a big to-do over it. The kids and their Mom also happen to be related to me by marriage - cousins. I didn't even know they were going, just happened to bump into them.Here I am smiling and looking like a total dork. Notice his "wish this was over" facial expression:
Me & my new buddy Alton
Of course my Mom always looks fantastic, but Alton forgot to smile. Hey, at least he was looking at the camera. They asked that nobody do any posed photos. Do you think anyone paid attention to that? Umm, no.
And this pic? This is the Youngest being very sick and passed out on the Living room chair. He's on antibiotics now. Very pitiful, but oh so cute.
That's just too cool!
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