Skip to main content

Holiday Mash-Up

I was running an errand over by the Chrysalis yesterday, so I thought I’d stop by and see how she was doing. (Are buildings “she” like ships?)  As I drove up the hilly drive off of South Entrance Road I saw signs of the upcoming Symphony of Lights lining the roadway. I have so many happy family memories of driving through the lights. Those candy canes feel like old friends.

When I reached the parking lot there was a definite change in mood. The decorations from CarnEvil were still on site. I went from Christmas to Halloween in seconds. Move over, candy canes. The skeletons are holding the fort at the Chrysalis, at least for now. The late afternoon light gave an eerie feeling to the scene. I fully expected zombies to emerge from an abandoned tent.

I should have taken photographs but I’m not sure I could have done the juxtaposition of Christmas/Halloween justice. It was truly creepy. It made me wonder if those work trailers are populated with Nightmare Before Christmas types who only come out when no one is around.

Soon the transition to holiday splendor will be complete. The Symphony of Lights will welcome drive-throughs, walkers, strollers, even pets for another year of one of my favorite Columbia traditions. What are your favorite holiday activities in Columbia/Howard County?

Share them here:

https://www.facebook.com/VillageGreenTownSquared/?ref=bookmarks

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...

They Can Wait

This is not a typical Saturday post. That’s because, in my community, it’s not a typical Saturday.  Oakland Mills High School, after years of deferred repair, needs massive renovation. It’s pretty simple: when you don’t fix a problem it gets bigger. The school system itself said the the OMHS school building was  "no longer conducive to learning" back in 2018.  2018 .  But Thursday the Boad of Education voted to push it out of the lineup of important projects which will be given the go-ahead to proceed soonest.  In my opinion it’s a terrible decision and sets a dangerous precedent. To explain, here’s the advocacy letter I sent in support of Oakland Mills High School. I was rather proud of it. I am writing to ask you to proceed with needed renovation at Oakland Mills High School in the most timely and comprehensive manner humanly possible. I have read the letter sent to you by the Oakland Mills Community Association and I am in complete agreement. You are extremel...

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 ...