The Acorn Festival

Note: This is not my usual sarcastic, ascerbic, tongue-in-cheek bit of nastiness. I am blogging this because it is something Mrs. Wiggy and I truly enjoyed - a bit of vanishing Americana, and the reason why people from NYC and CA don't understand the rest of the country. I'll try to be more nasty in the future.

On Saturday, Mrs. Wiggy and I journeyed down to Four Oaks, North Carolina. This is a very small town on I-95 just south of Smithfield. Not known for much, it's just a nice little town without any pretensions. Once a year, they put up a festival and solicit local businesses to donate money to pay for bands, rides for the kids, and so on. They put on a parade, invite some local celebrity to act as Grand Marshall, and kids get their faces painted up and eat funnel cake and ride cheesy rides. It is all a lot of fun.

Now, frankly, this sort of thing goes on all over the country, in small towns from east to west, north to south. That this one happened in a little corner of the southeast is of no consequence. What's important to me is that this kind of thing is still happening. It gives me hope that a part of the America I remember as a child is still being preserved, and not in a museum.

Now, if you're from 'the city' (wherever your center of culture and intellect might be), you might scoff at this sort of event. You might think it quaint or old-fashioned, even funny or deserving of ridicule. Well, I did to, at one point in my life. I thought I was so much more advanced than that. I came from roots such as these (only in rural central Illinois), and I thought I had left it all behind. Sure, those yokels, look at 'em having fun!

Well, I was wrong. This is not just good, clean, fun as they say, this is what America is built on. People living in communities who come out from time to time and interact with each other on a basic level. Understanding each other as people, being open and honestly friendly. Letting our collective guard down, forgetting about work and careers and the 401(k) retirement account and the war in Iraq and terrorists plotting to kill us all. This is how we lived, and how many of us still live. And you know what? Cheesy John Cougar Mellencamp songs notwithstanding, this is America.

So here are some photographs. I hope you enjoy them as much as I enjoyed taking them.

Oh, by the way, you can click on any of these photos to see them a bit larger.

This is Bill Leslie, a local news anchor on WRAL in Raleigh, NC. He also composes and performs his own music, which to me ranges from pure progressive jazz to celtic traditional, to bluegrass. He was the Grand Marshal of the parade (which we missed) and he performed with his band "Bragh Adair" (I believe that's what he called them). He autographed copies of his latest CD after his band's performance, and we bought one and had it signed. He seems like a very decent and gentlemanly fellow. We also enjoy watching him on WRAL every morning before we go to work.

Bill Leslie
Bill Leslie @ WRAL

Here is Mrs. Wiggy receiving our CD from Bill.

People stretched out on the grass to enjoy the bands - there were many present, from Bill Leslie's band to country-music bands, to shag music bands. What's shag music? Not what you think if you're British or an Austin Powers fan - Google for it! Hint: it is also called 'beach music' here in North Carolina.

Face-painting is always popular at these fairs. Why? I'm not sure. But what the heck - it beats shooting up heroin, I'm pretty sure. I've never heard of someone breaking into houses looking for more face-paint. Something tribal and primitive, perhaps. But safe.

It is always important to have lots of refreshments - and there were plenty of stands. Here's a typical one - it sells 'Smoothies'. Everybody loves smoothies.

And you really can't have a festival without funnel cake! So here's some funnel cake. Doesn't that look good? Well, not the display models. Those are made of wax. I think - it tasted waxy, anyway.

Now, in the South, NASCAR racing is very popular. Some might say more popular than...gasp...football. So you have to have a miniature NASCAR track for people to race each other.

You have just got to have your traditional rides...

...as well as your less conventional rides!

Ladies of a certain age...

...and ladies of a different age!

Trading secrets is part of what festivals are for!

Hanging out with our best friends...

...and hanging out with our best friends!

Now, you know you can't have a festival without a queen! So here's the outgoing queen, taking in the sun...

...and here is the incoming queen, about to accept her crown (well ok, she's already wearing it).

Your Majesty, the fair is yours.