Welcoming Winter with a Little Good Luck.

Yesterday was a good day. Street Fair is our fall kickoff event. We welcome the coming winter with a trip to Yellow Springs. Of course, as far as traditions go it is in its infancy. Just two years old, but, traditions have to start somewhere, right?

It is also an accidental tradition. Last year we planned to go to Yellow Springs just to wander through town, in and out of the little shops, having an appetizer, some coffee, maybe a drink. It is our kind of place, filled with small specialty shops, book stores, little restaurants, and bars. All uniquely Yellow Springs, all uniquely exotic and off beat. Somehow, by some stroke of good luck, we happened to plan our trip the very day they were having Street Fair. Now it is on our calendar, and if you are anywhere around central Ohio in the middle of October you should go. There is a charm and frantic energy to Yellow Springs and Street Fair is the outlet for all the accumulated passion of such an enchanted place. 

We talked to an artist in Marquette, MI last summer, we stumbled in to her shop wandering around waiting for the frieghter to dock and load. She struck up a conversation with us, we have walked through places like hers before and it could be as cold and silent as a tomb. Not there, though, she was so friendly. She had several awards tacked onto her walls and signs explaining her teaching schedule in Michigan and Florida. She was clearly a talented person. She was also an outgoing person, polite, and funny. I looked at a series of paintings, an industrial time lapse capsule captured in stark colors, straight lines and harsh, unforgiving geometry. Without lifting her head from her work in progress she explained the definition of the series. The birth, growth and decay of an industry, building or business. In those few sentences she opened my eyes to the value of a painting, the story and meaning behind the oil and canvas. Somehow I thought she would be at home in Yellow Springs.

This year we have decided to add an event to our warm welcome to the chill of winter. Midnight at Moonville. Moonville is an abandoned mining town in southeastern Ohio. There are rumors of a Moonville Ghost. A man was killed in the raiload tunnel, appropriately known as the Moonville Tunnel, and has been stuck in the area, wandering, lost and alone ever since. I’m not really sure what Midnight at Moonville is all about but the poster says enough for us.

It was another thing we kind of stumbled on. We rented a cabin at Lake Hope not far from the Moonville Tunnel, and since we are who we are we had to go looking for Moonville, and the Moonville Cemetery. We didn’t find them, nor did we find the Moonville Ghost. We decided to go back, an internet map in hand and find town and the graveyard, and maybe the ghost. Though there is no map for that. He is supposed to hang around in the tunnel, showing up occasionally.  Through the wonders of Facebook and the ability to follow and like things Midnight at Moonville showed up on my Facebook page. 

There were no cabins available so we decided to drive down and back. But, good fortune popped up again, someone cancelled and we snapped it up. Now, all of the sudden we are welcoming Old Man Winter with Yellow Springs Street Fair, a long weekend, a kayak excursion, a visit to Taco John’s, Moonville, possibly the real Moonville, and one of the best brunch buffets known to man. 

So winter be damned, we are going into the season with a smile, a nice tan, maybe, and full stomach and a story. Stay tuned.