Skip to main content

The Great Big Fall Weekend



There are so many things going on in Columbia/HoCo this weekend.

How many are there?

So many that when I attempted to make a list I completely crashed and burned. Sorry.

The weather isn’t providing the best set up for the day, either. We’ll start out rainy but it looks like it will clear up in the afternoon. So, not a total washout. 

At the top of my list is the Oakland Mills Fall Festival. It’s free, and begins at 11 am. 



If you want to know more about what’s in store, the festival has its own website.

Oakland Mills Fall Festival 

There will be musical entertainment, free kids crafts, food for purchase, and a variety of craft and other vendors. My personal favorite is when the Oakland Mills High School Band kicks off the festivities at 10:55 with the kind of music that makes you want to cheer. The Oakland Mills High School Fine Arts Boosters will also be on hand throughout the day with an Instrument Petting Zoo - - see, hear, and even get a chance to play a variety of different musical instruments.

If you don’t know me already, I will be easily identifiable as the person who glares at anyone talking while the band is performing. 

Another local event going on today really needs no publicity from me. It’s the Hops and Harvest Festival which is taking place at Merriweather Park at Symphony Woods. The team in charge of social media and advertising for Hops and Harvest starts working the day after Wine in the Woods is over in the Spring. At least, it certainly feels like it. If these folks were in charge of informing the community about elections and/or local issues, we’d all be a lot more informed. They are formidable.




Hops and Harvest Festival 

This event is not free. Tickets can be purchased here. You can purchase a designated driver ticket for 15.00 (as opposed to the $50 general admission) and I hope that they have a lot of takers so that festival-goers can get home safely.

If you wonder why I am promoting this event this morning I can give you one reason: Sobar. For the first time, HoCo’s own nonprofit dedicated to providing/promoting appealing alcohol-free beverage options is going to be on hand doing what they do best. Not everyone drinks alcohol. Or some folks might want to take a break during the festival and hydrate themselves with something alcohol-free. 

It’s also good to remember that this is an event which is open to kids. Providing opportunities for non-alcoholic beverages sets a good example for the younger set: not every moment of adult fun is centered around alcohol. Some people can have a good time without it. Attitudes about alcohol use start young. Giving children more than one view of how adults enjoy themselves is a really healthy thing to do.

If Hops and Harvest starts actively seeking out and hosting makers of N.A. beer, I would be really excited. And I might actually buy a ticket. Maybe next year.

Whatever you do this weekend, I hope you have fun. Maybe I will see you at the Oakland Mills Fall Festival.  




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