By David Fortier
Come Sunday Morning, the Mum Festival will have been going on full-tilt since Friday evening in its new venue downtown, with parts of North Main St. and Riverside Ave. closed to traffic, loads of vendors, a beauty pageant, live music, food trucks and a dedication ceremony in honor of Brigadier Gen. Edward Wozenski. Later comes the Mum Parade.
And the weather could not be more perfect.
Most of the week, around here at least, revolved around preparing for a visit from one of the kids and partner. When you’ve raised six kids, it’s always nice to have one visit. The visits, themselves, often revolve around meals and socializing, because a visit home always includes, for the offspring, catching up with friends as well as family.
This time around we got in two meals—breakfast at Parkside on Saturday morning and lunch on Sunday, takeout from Chunky Tomato. At Parkside, we were able to grab a table outside, the weather cooperating beautifully. The food, as always, was a treat. And of course, Bill Stortz was making the rounds and handed out a few American flags.
On Sunday, with our takeout, we ate on the porch. The potted plants are still flowering, but it was easy to see that I needed to water them. And yet, did I? Not until much later.
It was on the walk home from Parkside that I noticed, perched on the corner of Stearns St. and Maple St. a double-boxed wood frame on a post. One of the frames held a photo of Patterson School prior to its resurrection as Patterson Place. The frame next to it was empty, but, upon further inspection, that is upon looking through it, one was able to see that it was a mirror image of the photo, or at least an update of the photo.
The frames are posted around the city aside buildings with some historical significance, for instance, there is another one on the corner of Main and High streets, featuring the library.
The concept is being championed by the City Arts and Culture Commission, just another effort to make things more interesting and engage the imagination, while reinforcing that Bristol is a place with a rich and worthwhile history.
Other than that, I have been managing to get in some physical therapy, I am two months out from my knee replacement surgery. I am learning patience. There is no way to hurry things, I am finding. Overall, the progress has been good.
An overriding concern is continuing to expand the reach of The Bristol Edition. We have reached out to both political parties for interviews and hope to be publishing them as we get closer to the election. Some people will think, because Mary is a candidate, that our coverage will somehow be skewered. I get it, but our goal is to cover each party so that our readers will be well-informed about every candidate.
I have reached out to both chairs of the respective town committees, and to date have only heard from the Dems chair, Rippy Patton, whom I interviewed Saturday. I hope to be posting the conversation, in podcast form early this week.
Other than that, I came across another worthwhile podcast, this time from “On Being with Krista Tippett.” Here is title of the specific podcast: “Stephen Batchelor: Finding Ease in Aloneness.” Click on the link to go directly to site. The conversation discusses solitude in a way that sheds new light on it, especially our societal take on it.
Until next week.
“Come Sunday morning” is intended to be a weekly review, a recounting of the past week and an anticipation of week to come. Among its features will be reviews of old and new books, sharing of favorite podcasts, some family news, Bristol events and happenings and issues surrounding education, work and community journalism. He can be reached at dfortier@bristoledition.org.