Columnists
I scream
So, in an effort to keep moving and to enjoy all this area has to offer, LOML and I hopped into the Rolls-Can-Hardly and headed to Quinte West for a bit of a Saturday adventure. We’d read about the “Pop-ups in Quinte West” and of the downtown street festival and away we went. The Pop-Ups are housed (for the most part) in cute little wooden buildings along a walkway in Centennial Park. According to the online marketing the Pop-ups offer “new and emerging businesses the opportunity to reach new audiences, grow their sales and expand their business. As a business incubator program, the Pop-ups reduce barriers faced by new businesses and develop relationships between business owners and the City of Quinte West”. Not my words— them’s marketing words. We were intrigued by them there marketing buzz words. The reality was there is a tidy walkway in the park with little wooden buildings, mostly occupied by food service opportunists and not much else. The Belleville Senators had a spot, the Jehovah Witness Organization had a place, and so too did a little book shop catering to the youngest of readers. In less than twenty minutes we’d walked along the Pop-up route twice, scouted the dock area and headed back to the car to see what the Downtown Street and Art Festival had to offer. ZZZZ. Maybe it was the heat and the humidity but there certainly wasn’t anything festive about the Street Festival. Home we headed.
The moment we crossed the Murray Canal, on our way home, we felt energized. Obviously our disappointment wasn’t about the weather. It was atmospheric, though. County business people know how to do retail, food, drinks, culture, heritage and fun. We haven’t become that listless group of people who show up at one of the local markets trying to flog boxes of imported tie-dyes, mass manufactured doo-dads and paint-by-number art. As we drove along, LOML and I decided to take the “long way home”. Instead of heading down County Road 1. we drove along Highway 33. When we hit Wellington we just knew we deserved an ice cream treat. The Old Greenhouse is a fine bit of fun, kiddies. The Boss Lady, a person we’ve known for fifty years, was at the till and the staff were chatty, funny and generous with the scoops! In as long as it took me to have my first spoonful of Berry Berry Chocolate I knew our adventures for entertainment, food and fun didn’t have to take us any further than the County reaches. In spite of how busy the County becomes during the time between the Two Four and Turkey Day Weekend, we’ve still got the corner on how to deliver the goods without losing the identity of the County. We’ve all seen a lot of fabulous community markets, visited a bunch of farm stands, enjoyed really creative pop-ups, drooled over art shows and enjoyed a lot of food-to-go during our County tours. There truly isn’t much better than what we’ve got right here. And, what’s my point? I do have one. I always have a point, even if it’s pointless.
My point (and I have two) is we have so much right here in beautiful Prince Edward County. We have to remember how good it really is and fight to make sure it doesn’t become something we don’t recognize. It’s easy enough to do—to turn all of this into something listless, online and ordinary. We have to make sure the County doesn’t become a “reasonable facsimile” of what it truly is. It has taken me a very long time to really appreciate the “small community” vibe that goes on here. We know our neighbours. We take care of each other. We aren’t afraid to ask for, or offer, assistance. We love to chitchat when we shop (you can’t chitchat with a self-checkout, by the way, I’ve tried). We are very special.
My second point is, and I do have one, I’ve decided to make ice cream my main focus for the balance of the month of July, and maybe August and September. I scream for ice cream!
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