Summer used to mean lazy days with nothing you HAD to do.
Summer used to mean lazy days with nothing you HAD to do.
At least that’s how it seemed when I was a child. Of course, my dad still went to work every day, and my mom still made breakfast, lunch and dinner, and washed our clothes and kept the house clean. But for us children, in between a few weeks of day camp, say, or a family trip somewhere, summer meant fudgesicles, swimming in a public pool, catching fireflies at night and lots of time to daydream.
Lives have become much more bustling and regimented since then. Children go to summer school, or play an organized sport, or, if older, get a summer job. Moms do all the mom things plus often go to a job in an office. And time that we used to spend daydreaming and recharging our batteries for the next school year is now occupied with Xbox, iPod, or myspace.com.
Luckily for us in Hollister, on Saturday we have a chance to slow down and spend a day at a more relaxed pace. It’s the 20th annual Street Festival in downtown Hollister, and I can hardly wait.
The Street Festival was already a fixture when we moved here 11 years ago. I can’t imagine a Hollister summer without it. The Hollister Downtown Association sponsors it, partly as a way to get folks to check our our wonderful downtown.
If you have young children, spend some time watching them let loose in the jump house, then get them slices of free watermelon while you check out the sidewalk sales that turn San Benito Street into a kind of outdoor market.
If you have older children, pop the earbuds out of their ears and drag them along. Even the hardest of the hard-boiled preteens will be agog at the classic cars. From real antiques to super-custom lowriders, they always amaze me with the owners’ attention to detail in the restoration of the body or the gleam of the engine.
If the cars don’t grab them, maybe some of the vendor booths will. Craftspeople, restaurants, local nonprofits and other organizations are there to show off their products, possibly offer samples or engage in conversations about what they do and why.
There will also be four stages of live music and entertainment this year, which usually offer shade and a chance to sit down, besides some lively music.
So plan some time to grab another slice of watermelon, find a seat on a bench or on the plaza in front of Vets Hall, and just sit a spell.
Sit a spell and discover that daydreaming isn’t a thing of the past after all.
