Skip to main content

Lakefront Love


I would like to thank the weather gods for giving us beautiful Lakefest weather. My daughter and I went down to the Lakefront Friday evening and it was gorgeous. The weather, I mean. Well, also the Lakefront. Filled with the familiar sights, sounds, and smells of a festival weekend.

It was cool to see a table set up to help folks register to vote. (Now if we could only get them all to vote in Columbia elections!) The fountain was on in all its glory. Folks were putting their blankets down on the lawn to listen to musicians from our local School of Rock show off their skills.

I was sad not to see Monica Rogers Williams and her team From Momma’s Kitchen  at Lakefest this year. They’re usually ensconced over by The Hug statue, giving free samples of delicious cookies and filling orders at the speed of light. Apparently Festival management said no food vendors this year. I’m sure they have their reasons, but really? From Momma’s Kitchen is a locally owned and operated business and their cookies are consistently of high quality, with a wide variety of flavors.

They’re also way more affordable than most of the art that’s offered for sale. Just saying.

This is not to criticize the art. It’s gorgeous, and I always enjoy the variety of ideas and materials represented. This year I kept seeing...guitars. I was sorry my husband wasn’t with us.



My favorite was probably the guitar made out of stone which included an accurately formed matching amplifier. (Lower left in the photo.)

After examining the festival food trucks assembled in the American Building parking lot, we decided to go with Whole Foods instead. It allowed us to choose some healthier options and we still had a great view of the festivities. We did circle back for Kona Ice, though.

The Festival team is doing a great job on social media this year. I note a healthy vibe of energy and enthusiasm in their frequent posts. Good for them.

I hope you will go down today if you haven’t been yet. Take a look at the event page on Facebook to see what’s happening today. It feels good to experience Columbia as a “happening”, in full-on party mode. It was pretty cool to see the line forming outside the Soundry as we were leaving Friday night. It definitely feels more like a Downtown since they opened.



Comments

Post a Comment

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...
1 comment
Read more

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...
2 comments
Read more

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 ...
1 comment
Read more