Better late than never, I suppose — shots from Fall Fest

I took a bunch of photographs at this year’s Fall Festival.  I’m not sure why, but most of them were from the car show.  I’ve been busy the last few weeks with a job change — coming in the next few weeks — and a myriad of personal responsibilities.  Still, people might like some of these pics, untimely as they are.

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Fall Festival is upon us

OK, it’s not here just yet, but, it will be here before you know it.  If you’ve followed this blog over the last few years, you might have read that Fall Festival is my favorite of all the festivals and annual downtown events … by far.

In case you were unaware, Fall Festival is a charitable event at its core.  When you at the spaghetti dinner, pancake breakfast and/or the Sunday chicken dinner, you’re supporting local civic organizations.

https://plymouthliving.wordpress.com/2009/09/08/fall-festivals-humble-beginnings/

Check out the Fall Festival webpage, with a list of events.

http://www.plymouthfallfestival.com/

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Art in the Park: the more things change…

the more they stay the same.

Art in the Park is one of Plymouth’s premier yearly outdoor events.  I’d say it’s the king of all the local festivals and fairs.

What really stands out this year is that it looked surprisingly the same as last year’s event.  The same vendors have the same tents in almost the exact same places.  There appear to be more empty spaces this time around.

While this might appear to have a negative tone, I certainly intend no such thing.  This is more an observation than a judgment.  As always, there are some cool things to be found.  I bought a painted coin pendant, which, though pricey, is quite nice.  I do not remember this vendor in years past.

There’s still another day of AIP, so come out and see for yourself what is offered.

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Snake oil salesmen at the Green Street Fair

The minute we found out we’d been had, we laughed…hysterically.  Skepticism is natural when it comes to things like miracle cures and get-rich-quick schemes.  But it’s surprising how easily clever hucksters can disarm people that generally aren’t susceptible to scams.

To make a long story short, instead of ignoring one of the many invitations to see a demonstration or try a product, at the Green Street Fair, I stopped at one of the booths when the salesman asked me, “Hey, can I show you something for a second?”  I thought he might be giving some sort of chiropractic or body posture pitch.  Without even realizing there was a product involved, he had me arms out, standing on one foot.  To make that long story even shorter, he showed me that, without a “superbandz” rubber bracelet on my body, I could be easily pushed off balance.  As long as it was touching me, he couldn’t tip me over.  My wife and dozens around us had the same experience.  I heard, “Oh my God, that’s so crazy!” from a group of nearby teenagers who also trying the balance test.  $60 later, we had two bracelets we were told would “balance our bodies negative ions.”

Within a few hours, my wife learned the trick.

Here’s the product.  There are many like this one.

http://superbandz.net/

Again, it’s pretty funny that we were so taken in by what should have been easily recognized as a rip off.  But, it’s not funny — to me anyway — that other people have been taken, especially people looking for solutions to serious health problems.  It’s nothing short of fraud to tell people these rubber bracelets will cure what ails you by helping your overall balance.

Nearly as shameful as this company is that the folks that put on the Green Street Fair obviously weren’t very discriminating as to who can rent space and sell stuff in our community.  I hope next time the fair’s promoters will only allow sellers of legit goods and services to appear at this event.

 

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A few hastily-taken photos of the Plymouth Ice Festival

During what I intended to be a get-in-get-out trip downtown for cupcakes, I couldn’t resist taking a few photos of the Ice Festival.  They’re not the best shots, but they’re a wee sneak preview of what you’ll see this weekend.

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Plymouth’s Pumpkinpalooza

Here are some of the sights from last weekend’s first annual Pumpkinpalooza.  The Chamber of Commerce and local businesses switched up the downtown Halloween event this year.  In years past, local businesses put out candy for store-to-store trick-or-treating.  The manager of one very prominent business owner told me that aspects of the past events actually hindered downtown business patronage.  To bring people downtown, and give the kids something fun to do for the upcoming holiday, the community put together Pumpkinpalooza which is more like a mini-festival.  By all accounts, it went over quite well.  It’s obvious from the photos that people had a great time and they lucked out with good weather.

Enjoy the photos (used by permission of Sonia Tomassi and borrowed from the Plymouth Community Chamber of Commerce’s Facebook page)

Hula hoopster

Handsome stoplight

Liam the light

Giant S'more

H_ppy H_ll_ _ een Hangman. I wonder what it spells.

 

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What was going on downtown last night (9/28)?

In drizzly weather, the streets of downtown Plymouth were bustling with groups of people walking all over town.  Everyone, wisely, had umbrellas.  The crowd was made up of mostly couples, and many groups of couples.  Not that age matters, but this was not a younger (teen, twenty-something crowd.)  A lot of folks seemed to be in the 50’s or over.

I hadn’t heard of any downtown events, so I was surprised to see people braving the window and cool air in numbers considerably higher than the typical fall Wednesday evening.

Any ideas of what was going on?  My guess was some sort of restaurant or pub crawl type thing.

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