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Ruralite Cafe: Published 04/24/03

By Lisa Majors-Duff - News Editor

It's festival, ramp, motorcycle time again

 Lisa
It's festival time again in Sylva. Greening Up the Mountains will kick off its sixth year of welcoming spring back to our little section of the northern hemisphere this Saturday at 10 a.m. with the Parade of Many Colors, to be followed by a full day of meeting friends, booth browsing, animal petting and hot dog eating. (Don't forget to wash you hands if you order that hot dog after visiting the petting zoo!)

As a member of the festival organizing committee for (it seems sometimes) 100 years, I've witnessed each consecutive spring as festival crowds get bigger and food lines get longer. I've watched Cubmobiles get faster and listened to performers get louder.

And without exception I've seen smiles on the faces of visitors - whether they found the festival by accident on their way somewhere else or they brought a lawn chair from their home on Caney Fork to sit and listen as their 8-year-old granddaughter reads a poem she wrote in school.

As the festival has grown, so have the responsibilities of those who donate their time to manage it. And that's all you do with an event that has taken on a life of its own, you "manage" it. You can try to direct some things to happen, but when the day finally arrives all you can really do is stand back and let it live and breathe, walk and run, climb and draw, shop and eat.

As is true with most weekends, if you look around the community and region this Friday, Saturday and Sunday you'll find choice things to do with your leisure time. Take this Saturday for example. If you prefer to plan your day around your meals (and who doesn't), you could go to breakfast at the senior center's all-you-can-eat country feast, grab a gyro and/or a piece of frybread on Main Street for lunch and make your way to Savannah and have ramps and taters for dinner. You may have to take a little extra heartburn medicine, but it would be well worth it.

Or let's say you dig music of all types. You'll be accommodated again at the festival, the fire department's ramp dinner and the motorcycle rally in Cherokee. Live music in every genre - from bluegrass to country, rock 'n' roll to heavy metal, gospel to traditional - will penetrate the sweet mountain air this Saturday.

And let's not forget Earth Day. Greening Up the Mountains has tipped its hat to good, clean, environmental living from its very beginning, and this year will be no different. With the exception of a few understandable demands for convenience, festival organizers are once again urging participants and vendors alike to recycle, reuse and reduce.

Speaking of reducing, those involved in the 19th annual Tuckaseigee River Cleanup this Saturday will do their part to reduce the litter that has accumulated this winter along the banks and in the rapids.

After a weekend like this one, you may consider calling in to work blind Monday morning. "I don't see myself coming in today." Have a great time, whatever you do!

Back to Archive: 04/24/03.