What Happened to Summerfest?

short answer: Karma

opinionated answer: greed.


Tomorrow is the first weekend in August. For the last three or four years, this has meant Summerfest for Brown County; for Mt. Orab.

Big name (once upon a time) entertainers, as the culmination of a summer's worth of free "Music in the Park" concerts.
A celebration of selling and crafts and community. Many of our local businesses were proud to be sponsors and do their part in creating this wonderful time.
A gathering of friends and neighbors meeting greeting and enjoying one last big thing before cool weather and school schedules and the slo-mo rush into the holidays.

The owners of Georgetown Rent-2-Own even moved their traditional back-to-school bash to the Mt Orab park, because they would be able to reach more of their neighbors, friends, and customer base. For many years they have been doing this giving back, and they did it in a big way. (Because that's how we do things here in the country.)

in 2013

last Georgetown bash

The weather was good, the friendliness was fun, and , hey, we would all run into old friends or maybe make some new ones.

The second year of the Bash being in the park, the Powers-That-Be decided that after a certain time, the bounce houses and other attractions would need to be paid for. Those collecting giveaway school supplies could eat and play until noon, which was the somewhat liquid cutoff for collecting the supplies.
Okay, this was a little different, but maybe it was fair enough. Parents and families do realize that bounce houses cost, the electric to run the fans cost, etc. Once the supplies have been picked up, and the kids have played a while, if one doesn't have the money, one can leave, or at least look around elsewhere.
It was kind of a drag, but the children who were dragged out at 8 or 9 am to go get notebooks and a hot dog were usually readily coaxed onto new and other interests.

Last year, a new "player" enetered the field. Mt. Orab Auto Mall declared itself to be THE sponsor of Summerfest, with a little help from those nice little humdrum everyday neighborhood businesses.

And the first thing we, the humble but poor citizens knew, a decision had been made to CHARGE ADMISSION to our super great summer fantastic wonderful free community event.

Huh? This humongous "SuperBusiness"  which considered itself the great savior of commerce in Mt. Orab signed up to provide an influx of cash -- and the first thing we hear is that our free party will now have a fee!

EVEN THE FREE GIVEAWAY had to pay admission fees.
(Some of us held out a hope that it would be as the year before; fees after a certain time, but No. To enter the free public neighborhood park where the giveaway was being held, one had to pay admission.)
To Get into a FREE public park.
To collect FREE school supplies.

Now, if youre a parent struggling to buy notebooks and folders -- and at back-to-school prices! -- it seems reasonable that IF you have the money you may as well go buy the stuff, doesn't it? Especially if you have many children.  You could even do so without the carnival atmosphere and prices and being out in the heat all day long. Shop in air conditioned storesc, maybe even without the whiny, hungry, thirsty, bored children along.


Is it any surprise that this year has seen fewer (if any) commercial sponsors?
Is it any surprise that out local businesses, who together made other Summerfests happen, don't want to have their efforts minimized?
Is it any surprise that they don't want to be shoved aside by Outsiders with more money? (And fewer local ties?)
Is it any surprise that no one arranged entertainment such as we have become used to?

Is it any surprise that this year's "Summerfest" has become "Buy local Brown County Day?
Is it any surprise that the evening before the "Big Day" there is one booth set up in the park, and one flatbed by the bandstand?
No rows of booths, tents, campers.
No food trucks.
No coolers.
No bounce houses awaiting inflation.

Is it ANY surprise? 

Warren's First Year of World.

Tomorrow is Warren's last day of school for the year. The time flew by.

It has been a good, great fantastic year for him. Finally becoming aware of colors and shapes and numbers -- although we still have a long way to go with that one.

He still communicates uniquely -- that will likely never go away as it seems to run in the family. He uses his own made up sign language, a lot, but it's a lot easier to interpret when there's a color or a shape to go along with the sign! And, of course, there's the familiarity factor. (If he's ever telling you about the "red-blue, he's talking about the Food Court here in Mt. Orab. Why red-blue? It has red letters (that he calls numbers) and blue awnings.) But you'll only know that if you know him.


He was, in my judgement, about 18 to 20 months behind in speech and comprehension of 'things' (colors, shapes, counting). He's made up a lot of ground, closing the gap, again my uneducated but not inexperienced judgement, down to 9 - 12 months.
He's a smart boy. If we keep working with him, maybe he'll close the gap this summer. Or maybe he'll just learn at his own pace and in his own way. Maybe the challenge will be helping him accept his differences in learning and applying lessons.


As long as he keeps learning, we're all good.




And isn't that true of all of us? When we quit learning, we are in a world of trouble.

Local News(papers)

Once again, the whole block of local newspapers has been bought by a 'media group'. This time the block was larger, containing Clermont, Brown, Adams, and (I think) Highland County papers. Other buyouts have included different combinations of these papers, but not all of them at once.

This sparked some discussion -- again -- of what a sinkhole local papers are, how expensive to publish and distribute, etc. All stories that have been told; all details that have become cliche on the topic.

The "new" publishers speak of how combining reduces costs, increases coverage, blah, blah, blah.

What none of the papers are doing is reporting news that the customers are looking for.

We are all still wondering about the booms we heard all over Mt. Orab last summer. No word of their existence disturbed any of local newspapers.

There was an incident one evening of power outages, road closures, and even a medical helicopter called on the west side of Lake Grant. Neighbors on Pleasant Hill as well as those near the lake are still wondering what and why and even who, although we can all accept that that last info is more for family to share than news sources.

There was an armed robbery of a local business during Fair Week. You know, where someone's children were were working? Did anyone know it happened? Did a neighbor, who only wanted a cup of coffee, tell about it? Did someone find out from a son's classmate, because your local reporter was too busy at the Fair? (Watching tractors? Looking at cows?)

There are fires.

There are times when ambulances cross paths with other ambulances -- Georgetown or Ripley going north, Mt. Orab heading south. Has something happened, or is it 'just' people getting sick or hurting?

There are accidents, often closing roads and detouring traffic. A recent incidence closed 68 during school bus runtime, and there were rumors of body bags. Is this true? We don't know -- no media source has seen fit to tell us.

These are the stories we want to know about.
These are the questions we want answered.
This is news.

Yes, a week later, even a month later, is okay. Of course, by then we know if it was someone close to us or if it impacts us directly, but we are still wondering about WHAT HAPPENED? And WHY?
Can this be fixed?
Can it be improved?
Could it have been prevented?
Can we do anything?
Should we?

These incidences involve us.
They (can) involve our friends, our neighbors, our families. Our neighbors's friends and families.
These are our people. 
We want to help.
We want to know.

Our local newspapers should want us to know, too.

That is what local news is.

If you want to make money, report the NEWS.

I'm back -- I hope.

Apologies for yet another break.
I'm sorry.
Every day I have every intention to keep up with this and my other blogs, but then somehow I just lack the oomph to actually do it. I don't know what the problem is, except that it is within me. I dom't know if it's physical -- aches and pains and sneezes and hunger, or if it's psycological, or what. Just sometimes I. Just. Can't.

I'm hoping to push myself past that, especially as the year ends; as the season of darkness ends; as light creeps into our days I am hoping thast energy will creep into my backbone, brains and fingers. 
So that I can and will actually write.

Oh I write all the time -- in my head. Balancing sentences, constructing paragraphs, choosing words for their precision and their clarity.
I am never not writing.
In my head.

That doesn't get the job done, though, does it?

I'm not big on New Year resolutions, but I am big on trying again. I should be -- I do it often enough. Plenty of experience at it.

And so, I will once again try to apply myself. Try to be a "good steward" of the "talents" I have been given. 

A Snippet

"I tired, Daddy."

"Well, go to sleep, son. Sleep as long as you need to."

"For  ever?"

"I'll miss you here when that happens. But I'll see you there someday."

"And then we can RUN, Daddy! Me 'n' you, we can run and run and RUN!"

"Yes, son, then we will be able to run."

Phishers of Memes

Sometimes, my friends worry me.

I don't mean normal worries, like are they home safe or are they happy or how are their children worries -- those are a normal part of the give and take of friendship.
Lately. I have worried, probably way too much, over how gullible they are to "just for fun" Facebook memes.

It started with the silly holiday names. Mostly they go by initials, but some are poking around for your birthdate. Or someone else's initials, such as your first child's. Or maybe your father's.Those are harmless, for the most part. The phishers are building themselves a "just for fun" reputation.

Once that is achieved, the goal becomes one's birthdate, in all its unedited glory.
You see, on Facebook, many of us are wise enough to not put the year. The day, yeah, but the year is questionable.
Because one of the cues/clues to your credit/financial identity is your full birthdate.

So how old were you in 1969? I can do math enough to know that if you were 11 that means you were born in 1958. And if I can figure it out, believe me, someone smart enough to code can do so in half the time. They may even have a chart.

Now, they -- either the memes or the phishers; you choose -- have become a bit more nosy. Now they have people posting their family tree by last name. I am a who. My dad was a who. His mother was a what. My mother was a why. Her mother was a how.

What is the standard security question for online access to financial accounts?
Mother's maiden name.
BINGO!

You have given them information not only to your accounts, but also to those of your mother and your father, and possibly your grandparents, if you went back another generation.

I have seen where some say, "Yes, but the information is out there anyway. If they want it that bad, they can find it."
True, but why on earth would they go looking when you just hand it to them? If you don't play along, someone else will.
Do you really think they care WHO they defraud? They'll take everybody they can get.

And boy do they get a lot.

Phishers bait their hooks, cast their lines, and plan their next trip.
Already the memes are sneaking in to spell your child's name with the last four letters of your dad's middle name and the first initial of your maiden name.

What will you fall for next?
And who will be to blame when your, or your parents, bank accounts are emptied and the credit cards maxed out?

How fun is that?

Writer's Dilemma: Diagnosis

Fellow writers, what would you do? What do you think?


I have written two things that include oddities -- one an illness; the other a behavior. Some of the feedback I have received is that I should be telling (not good storycrafting) what the diagnosis is or explaining the behavior.

The illness is the story of a child who died and her father.  the story is set somewhat ambiguously in the 1940s, USA. The disease that the child died of was not even named until 1938, and that was in Canada.
Therefore, at the time of the story, there was no diagnosis.
None.
Treatment was of the symptoms as they arose.

The fact is, I didn't know myself what the disease was until I had finished writing the vignettes, and looked up the symptoms myself. Not quite a textbook case -- are they ever, really? -- but variations were within the norms for the condition.

In the story, the illness went undiagnosed, even after the death of the child.
Because there was, in that time period, no (or rare) formal diagnosis for it.

It was what it was, and so was the outcome. Those involved had to deal with the situation as it occurred, with no answers.

That was the story.

***********************************

The other situation was part of a novel, a character trait that was not consistent with the character's general development. An irregularity in verbalizing, even though the character had an enormous (for his age and the times) vocabulary with a good understanding of most words and the ability to guess accurately the meaning of unfamiliar words.

In the novel, the child's caretakers do notice and try to have this idiosyncrasy checked out. They mention at different times that this that or the other was done. A thorough physical, and the boy's hearing was tested, even though that seemed an unlikely cause since he could understand.
In the end, the adults decided it was just a quirk in the child's development and let it be, just keeping an eye on it as he ages.

It isn't really a BIG IMPORTANT detail, just, as I said, something of a character quirk.

****************************************

In both cases, or in either case, inserting today's knowledge in a yesterday's story doesn't seem right to me.
I also have not been able to figure out how I would do it, if I wanted to. (Which I don't.)


It speaks loudly and is a sad commentary that readers want everything put in a box, sorted, and labelled, don't you think? I wonder why it is this way. Does this approach really make anyone happier? Are children no longer allowed to be themselves, unique?

There are still undiagnosable conditions, especially in children.
There are still unexplainable idiosyncracies in childhood development.
There are still unique characters whose entire existence is outside the box.

What's most alarming is that these demands were made, not by everyday readers, but by other writers.
Make no mistake, these were demands. One critiquer was infuriated that I did not tell her and every other reader what was wrong with that boy. In her opinion, if I didn't explain it, I shouldn't write it that way.
And she had only read an excerpt. Even when I explained that the 'issue' was addressed in other parts of the book, she was still insistent that nothing undiagnosed, unexplained, or unlabelled could be in the story.

If out creative peoples are thinking and writing this way, what hope is there for the individualists in our world and the world to come?

Traveling Time

Besides writing, I have always wanted to travel.

Writing is something I have never classed as a dream. It's what I do; it's a facet of Who I Am. If I do, or don't do, or dream it, I will write it. Some way, some day. This is a fact, not a goal; not an ambition; not a dream.

Travel is the dream.
Something I have always wanted to do, but have done little of . Life has a way of stepping in and putting things back, for the someday that may never happen.That will probably never happen.

Well, my sisters started making it happen for me. Two years ago, they invited me to be part of their trip to Niagara Falls.









This June they invited me to participate in a Great Smokies getaway.

I can't thank them enough.

I've been looking into myself recently to see where all the desire went.

It didn't go anywhere, but it did get buried.

Buried under worries about him and them and cars and jobs and kids and health and homes and aloneness.

Once, I had a goal to walk the West Coast of the US, from San Diego to Seattle. I tried to save for it by saving change, but never managed to fill even a small peanut can with money. It kept being used, or borrowed, and I don't even remember when I gave that up.

Besides, my "big dream" was overshadowed by the neighbor across the street.
He had a goal, too.
His goal was to walk around the whole dang world.

Made my dream puny in comparison.

And then he actually did it!
And published articles, letters, and books about it! (yeah, that one, too!)

Thanks, Steve!
(Steve Newman, Dream thief.)

Seriously, at the time, it was encouraging. If he could do this GREAT BIG THING, there was no reason why I couldn't do something on a smaller scale. In fact, it proved that there should be, could be some way of doing it.

I don't know when or why I put that dream away.


But, as my life is slowing and sorting itself out, and there is time again, I am finding this dream goal once again.

 My sisters, part of the "Life" that whittled the dream away from me, are now giving it back.
Aren't they wonderful? Am I not lucky?

I want to go there.
I want to see that.

Somehow, I will.
Come hell or high water; come junk cars and minimal budget; come life or death.
Come life or death.
death. the ultimate journey.

Is it What? Or Which?

There is a sign at a church here in our little town. It asks "Is prayer your steering wheel, or your spare tire?"

How is this even a question?
What does it even mean?
Which answer would be the wrong answer? Aren't both options a viable use of prayer?
Is this really an either/or question?

Steering wheels and tires are both round, and they are both essential parts of a car. Essential parts of steering, driving, directing a car. (At least until joysticks or their equivalent take over, which I fully expect to see become standard before my time is done.)

But they have very different functions.

The tired old apples and oranges comparison doesn't even come close. Apples and oranges both being fruit, as steering and tires are both wheels.

Oranges and potatoes may be a closer simile/metaphor.
Pretzels and popcorn.
Balloons (the hot air kind) and baby carriages. (Do they still make those?)
Kitty cats and Gorillas.

Yes, this sign flummoxes me, every time I pass it. (Usually twice a day.)

I don't know what it means, or how it came to be phrased that way, or whose bright idea it was. It may even have come from a book. "The Half-Baked Signage Suggestions"

But do you know what else?
It has also done what it was intended to do.
It has made this sign-reader take a look at prayer and life, and wonder how and why it's used and when and where.

And, to answer my own question, I am pretty sure that there isn't really a wrong answer for prayer as a directing force. (That includes defining prayer as scientific questioning of how and why the universe works.)

So -- is prayer -- whatever you conceive it to be -- your steering wheel, your spare tire, or maybe a ball bearing? Or a pea. Or maybe even your hula hoop.

Public Park, Back-to-School Bash, and Summerfest

It's summer time, and time for the summer fun. It's August, too, which means summer is winding down.

Take your kids out and spend the day at the community park here in Mt.Orab. It has playgrounds (one for 2 and under, one for 2 and up), basketball courts, picnic tables, a shelter, trees, and grass. And bathrooms nearby. They have concerts throughout the summer. Music in the Park. Bring your lawn chairs.

For many years, Rent-2-Own in Georgetown had sponsored an all day back-to-school bash in August. They made a festival of it, with food and bounce houses and free school supplies. (I believe it ran from 10 until 3 or 4, but I'm not certain. Most of the hot August afternoon, with waterslides and a sprinkler cave among the bouncies.)

A community project; a way to help; a way to 'payback'; a way to make a difference

I don't know how long R2O had been doing this when my granddaughter started school. If they did it when my girls went to school, I never heard of it. If it existed then, it was kept low-key. (maybe customers only? I honestly don't know.) By the time Hailey was school age, though, it was touted in the local papers as one of the annual events of the season.

Three years ago, Brown County decided to have a "Summerfest" It would be a big ol' sponsored summer festival like every town every where used to have before lawsuits and insurance and the entitlement to have "fun" with no responsibility and no accountability took over the world.
Vendors could set up booths.
There could be car shows.
There would be concerts.  Big name concerts.

And it would all be wonderfully free for the public; for the citizens of town and county and as many neighbors as could be drawn in.

There would be entrance fees for EVENTS. There would be fees for vendors. For the concerts, they would even create special seating areas that could be paid for ahead of time.

And there would be sponsors. Local businesses would do their part in underwriting and sharing expenses for this great community service. Sharing cost, building a reputation, and the tax write-offs all made this a winning proposition.

The Back-to-School Bash was moved to this venue. It was, to the public, a good fit.
The goals were the same; the reasons were the same; the feeling was the same, plus so much more.


The second year, after the back-to-school products had been distributed and that part of the day was done (the giveaway was 9 - noon), the organizers of the fest imposed an additional charge for the bounce houses. You know, the ones set up in the PUBLIC COMMUNITY PARK? The ones that have been provided free for however many years, at a PRIVATELY OWNED location?

Okay. Unfair, disgusting, and outrageous, but easily avoided.
Take the kids early, leave early, and let them do without your business in all other aspects of the fantastic "free" summerfest.


********************************************************************************



This year Summerfest is NOT free.
It will still be held at the community park.
In fact, you will NOT be allowed to enter YOUR public park without paying an entry fee.

Guess what, folks.
You wont even be allowed to go wait an hour in line with your cranky, sleepy, hot, and hungry children (school children MUST be present) to pick up your FREE back-to-school bundles without paying an entry fee. 

(Ah, for the good old days, just 3 years ago, when one could show up at lunch time, after the children awoke and were just beginning to get bored.)

No, it isn't a huge amount of money. That's not the point.

Two FREE events are no longer free.

OUR OWN PUBLIC PARK will not be free that weekend.


The organizers mouth the tired old line about expenses and losses and all that crap. What, the businesses don't want the tax credit anymore? The local businesses no longer want to build ties to the community?

If that's the case, and if they want to turn this event into a moneymaker (a money-getter) instead of a public service (money-giver), they certainly have that right.
On private property.

Not in a public park where kids have been going to play for however many years on their weekends.

Everyone is excited about the fest, the events and concerts and whatever else.
Everyone, that is, except the families who will have to stay home because they can't afford to go to the festival AND -- whatever else they need to do. Eat? Drink? Stay cool? Put gas in vehicles? Add more to their school supply lists?

Why?
Just tell me why.