The Autumn Leaves Festival

I grew up in the same area that I live in now. Every year we have what is called the "Autumn Leaves Festival." It is a street festival downtown. All of Main Street is blocked off, along with a couple of the side streets, and booths are set up. Vendors bring their crafts, homemade items, and food goods and sell them.

For whatever reason, a lot of the locals don't like the Festival. And yeah, a lot of tourists are in town bogging down traffic and causing accidents and generally getting in the way. And yeah, it's a little inconvenient to have to detour around downtown if you need to get around the city.

But it's so much fun!

And you know why? Two words: funnel. cake.

No really. It is a great street festival. There are a lot of neat crafts and vendors. Most of them are very Appalachian or country. And the food is spectacular! Ground steak sandwiches and collard green sandwiches and funnel cakes and blooming onions and...well, do I really need to go on?? There are peanuts and soft drinks and homemade ice cream. All natural honey and preserves and homemade jams.

I have gone pretty much every year for as long as I can remember.

It's great to get out and savor the sunshine. The Autumn Leaves Festival is usually the last good weekend of summery weather every year. You walk up and down the street, admiring the booths and crafts, you meet people that you haven't seen since last year. People you went to high school with, people you used to work with. You get to see that girl you had Biology with's new baby. And bump into that guy that you took Driver's Ed with, who you heard just got out of prison. And of course all the politicians are there...politicking.

All this down-home country goodness is mixed with all these out of towners. The Floridians and the Texans and the Yankees who think that the way we talk is just precious. And who just adore the blue grass music. And think our town is just quaint.

And they're right. We are precious. We're proud of our accents and our heritage and our music and our town. And to me that's what the Autumn Leaves Festival is all about. Getting back to our roots.

Most of the time, it's easy to forget that Mount Airy is a town that grew up nestled in the Appalachians. We are Appalachian people who got just far enough out of the mountains to survive the winters while keeping the beautiful Blue Ridge in sight. But I have always felt like the Autumn Leaves Festival takes us back to where we came from. Family gathering around listening to some raw fiddle and banjo jamming. Fried foods and homemade goods. Saying "Thank y'all" and "How y'all doin'?" and "See y'all next year."

It treats my soul. Makes me happy. And makes me look forward to this October weekend every year.

See y'all at the festival! Hope everyone has a great weekend!