Amy Vanderbilt, the queen of good manners, said that good manners sometimes mean simply putting up with other people’s bad manners.

And, if that means tolerating syrup soppers, then there were a lot of good mannered folks hanging around the Pioneer Museum of Alabama on Saturday.

The crowd at Butter Churnin,’ Syrup Soppin’ Saturday topped 200, and that was encouraging, said Jerry Peak, museum director.

“We had the first event of this kind last year, and I think people really enjoyed it and told others about it,” Peak said. “That’s what we want to do – get people talking about the events that we have out here. And, we had quite a few people from out of the county so, hopefully, word about the Pioneer Museum of Alabama will continue to spread.”

Peak said Butter Churnin,’ Syrup Soppin’ Saturday is a family event and children were there with the parents and grandparents to learn more about the way life used to be and what people used to eat.

“Everybody that came seemed to have a really good time and enjoyed the biscuits, butter and sausage, said Agnes Johnson, a museum volunteer biscuit baker.

“They didn’t even mind having to stand and wait while I took the biscuits out of the oven. And, they didn’t seem to mind if I got a few of the biscuits a little too brown on the top. When you’re cooking on a wood stove sometimes that happens.”

While Johnson was baking biscuits inside the demonstration cabin, her “guests” were churning butter on the porch.

“Just about every bit of the butter that was churned was churned by people who stopped by to visit,” Johnson said. “We all had a lot of fun. Charles and Carolyn Barron even stayed around and helped me in the kitchen. That’s the way it was a long time ago. Everybody pitched in to help.”

Several ladies that left the demonstration cabin had rolled out biscuits and choked them off for the first time in their lives. And, “Miss Agnes” got a lot of compliments on her ‘light and fluffy’ biscuits.

“Some people, and not just children, had never churned or made out biscuits before,” Johnson said and added laughing, “and, some people were even sitting over in the corner soppin’ syrup.”

Johnson brought a jar of her homemade kudzu jelly to share and the jar went home empty.

“We had a lot of people from out of town and one couple had seen the sign about the Syrup Soppin’ and decided to spend the night in Troy and come to the Syrup Soppin’ before going on to their destination in Florida,” Johnson said. “This was a well attended event and it should continue to grow as more people hear about it.”