Festival Fun

Last weekend the hubby and I decided to check out GrapeFest, the wine festival held annually in Grapevine, Texas. Attractions included live music (band of one of hubby's work acquaintances played--Irish rock--they wore kilts--very fun to watch/listen), grape-stomping contest (had to sign up prior to festival--darn it! I wanted to pretend I was Lucy!), and various carnival foods. Yum. Somehow, blue cotton candy soothes my soul. We sampled quite a few wines. (Don't worry--we took shuttles that were provided.) Some were very tasty, and others would make a wino wince. I highly recommend Su Vino, a winery located, I believe, on Main Street. Very hip but not pretentiously so.

I love festivals. As I said, you can always get cotton candy. Then there's watching the kids ride the ferris wheel and the carousel. Observing parents deal with fussy, overly-tired children is pretty amusing, too...when you don't have one of your own! But what I love the most about festivals, carnivals, and the like is the huge range of types of people you find. There was the "goth" couple, with dark lipstick, nail polish, and piercings, accompanied by their very unadorned early elementary-aged son. Then there are the random single, middle-aged men, whose shorts ride a bit too high above their waists. They are often found near a music stage, nodding their heads rather geekily to the music. Usually, they try to tap their toes but manage to lose their balance in the process. This festival also had a booth devoted to Harleys, so there were quite a few biker guys and gals, who always look like they want to kill somebody, but, in my experience, are just big softies. I have to laugh as I see these people, but not maliciously. I'm so amazed at how many different kinds of people there are. As my mom often said, it takes all kinds of people to make a world. And at festivals, we all get along. We're all there to have a good time, enjoy the food, wine and music, and just kick back and relax. Would that we lived our everyday lives that way.

I do have to share what we observed as we sat on a park bench under a red oak tree, consuming aqua-colored spun sugar. (By the way, it's autumn, people. The tree had big, fat acorns hanging from it--beautiful.) A couple of feet away from our bench stands a bronze statue of a man in a suit. A rather ordinary-looking man, he has spectacles and leans a bit on a cane. Let me repeat that it's a statue. A teenage boy walked by with what seemed to be his mother and some other family member. He halted in front of the statue and stared into Mr. Statue's eyes for a full ten seconds. I guess he decided he was pretty safe and that it was an inanimate object because then he moved on. Hubby and I giggled that someone would think it was a real person. But we also had suspicions that he was a person with special needs, so we assumed that was the reason for his hesitant behavior. But in the next few minutes, three or so more people did the same thing. And these individuals looked like they had fully functioning brains. I've seen "living statues" at other festivals and at Covent Garden in London, so I can understand the apprehension of approaching something that looks to be a statue but could actually be a real person that will later scare the pants off you. But really--is it that hard to distinguish between a living human being and a metal one? It's all in the eyes. As it's been said, "The eyes are the window of the soul." I think I'll steer clear of statues for a while though, just to be on the safe side.