Skip to main content

Regional Reach

Do you want to get away from it all? Put the cares of your life behind you? Maybe you don't have the funds or the time for a Carribean cruise. Let's face it, for most of us that kind of getaway is out of reach.

But if you are willing to stretch a little...

The Inn at Norwood is a bed and breakfast in Sykesville, Maryland. The rooms are decorated with seasonal themes, and each has a spa tub and a fireplace. A delicious and ample home-cooked breakfast is a part of your stay, and the owners have a living room full of restored antique arcade/carnival game machines and toys of by-gone eras.

We like to eat dinner at E.W. Beck's. It used to be more of a smoky biker hangout, but since the change in smoking laws, it's a more welcoming place to a variety of folks. It's always busy, but we go on the early side and we've never been turned away or made to wait. You can get locally grown gourmet creations, or traditional pub food.

Another favorite local business is A Likely Story bookstore. It is a wonderful combination of new and used books, toys, gifts, and selections from local crafters. The owner is friendly and there's a couple of couches if you want to rest a bit or take a few extra minutes to chat and look at books. We always find something interesting there.

I can't call it a HoCo Holler, since they are over the line in Carroll County, so let's call it a Sykesville Shout-Out. Next time you have a hankering to get out of town, you won't have far to go...

 

hocoblogs@@@

 

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Teacher Gifts

Today is the last day of school before the Winter Break. It’s a good time to remember the far-reaching nature of our public school system. You may not have children. You may have sent your children to independent schools. It matters not. You will be impacted one way or another. Yesterday I read a long thread on Facebook about several waves of illness in the schools right now. There’s influenza A and norovirus, I believe. And of course there’s COVID. Apparently in some individual schools the rate of illness is high enough for school admin to notify parents.  When I was little the acceptable holiday gift for a teacher was one of those lovely floral handkerchief squares. (I don’t know what it was for male teachers. They were rare in my elementary years.) These days the range of teacher gifts is wider and I have fond memories of Target gift cards which I have written about before. I think it’s safe to say that giving one’s teacher Influenza, norovirus, or COVID is not the ideal holiday...

F ³: We Are Not Entitled

  A college student went missing. His family and friends were distraught. The community was encouraged to be on the lookout and spread the word.  Days passed.  They must have been agonizing days for those who cared about the missing student. Thoughts that foul play had been involved cannot have been far from their thoughts.  Then, at last, the student was found. Alive. The news was shared with the public.  So. Much. Relief. A family had been reunited with their child. Even though we know that life is complicated, I think it is okay to accept this as a happy ending and leave it at that.  But the world of social media says no. For every expression of joy at the news came questions and even judgement. It became clear to me that some folks felt entitled to an explanation. They wanted the backstory. It’s as though they felt that, by enlisting the help of the public on social media, the authorities now owed them all the details. Television dramas often weave curr...

Separate and Unequal

  Remember “Separate but equal”? Remember how that really meant that Black schools languished in  broken-down buildings without adequate heat or toilet facilities, with cast-off, ragged learning materials, underfunded and largely ignored? The Supreme Court struck that down in 1954. The evidence was clear that separate was not equal. Plessy v Ferguson had led to - - no, endorsed - - deeply unequal schooling and opportunities. We tend to think of Brown v Board as being purely about racial integration. It was not.  It was about the logical consequences of segregation. And they were not, not, not equal. The ruling in 1954 didn’t transform public education for non-whites into a land of milk and honey by any means. But it articulated some essential truths in a way that made including everyone a legal precedent which could be relied upon and built upon. It was better than what came before it but it rested upon unsteady ground. It did not necessarily change the hearts or minds ...