Things I Love About Summer: Part 2

Every year, a week or two after school has closed out for the summer, a vacant lot on what we will call the "main drag" of our little town and towns across the Midwest is filled with a traveling amusement park for the annual town festival.  There is something about these town festivals that I love even though I rarely attend them any longer.  

Growing up in Oswego, Illinois just outside of Chicago, we had Oswego Days later to be called Prairie
Fest where the main street of town turned into an outdoor shopping, eating, drinking, festival in the evenings and summer nights.  Music filled the streets of downtown with the municipal band playing in the park and later a rock and roll or country music band on the street near the sponsoring tavern.  Downtown shops put racks of clothes and tables of summer merchandise on the sidewalks, the fire station held some kind of water hose and bucket on a wire contest that I remember but had no idea what was happening other than a lot of water spraying all over.  The water brigade was welcome as it was normally sunny and hot.  I attended those festivals for years and years.  During my high school years, I participated in the annual Oswego Days parade as a Cub Scout and later marching in the band.  I sang solos and duets at Ice Cream socials during the festival, and I attended and rode the rides of the traveling amusement park in a field near the elementary school.  

Today, in the town I call home, we have the Good Neighbor Days renamed from the Cherry Festival after a tornado decimated the town in 2013.  It was a well intended name as it symbolized the unity of the community after the tornado, but people continue to call it the Cherry Fest confusing those who are not in the know.  It is kind of amusing and around our house we call it both names without blinking an eye.  

Even though I don't attend the festival any longer, it is still one of the things I love about summer.  My kids go the festival at night to hang out with friends and ride the rides, but the idea of festival has really changed over the years.  There isn't a parade any longer.  I don't see any bands or music on a schedule to attend.  There are the rides, a 5K run, and a pancake breakfast, but that is about it.  This is no shade on any committee or chamber of commerce, it reflects the society in which we live.  Has it been shaped by social media?  Maybe the COVID pandemic forever changed festivals, or maybe the national political divide has something to do with it.  Nevertheless, I still love the small town festivals despite the notable changes and lack of umph.  They are throwback to community and excitement for something good.  They are a throwback to neighborhoods and the community coming together for fun.  Perhaps they are a thing of the past, but who knows, maybe as the pandemic fades from memory and the political pendulum swings and maybe even the negativity and criticism that social media creates will settle, these little town festivals will continue to do what they are intended to do, bring communities together.  Maybe the bands will return to spread their music.  Maybe the parades with classic cars, fire trucks, and floats will return and people will be happy and excited.  

I think this is what I love about the small town festival.  It is hope for community.  It is hope to showcase the towns in which we live.  It is symbolic of our shared community and love of place.  For these things and more, it is one of the things I love about summer.