Off the Editor’s Spike: Celebrating hometown

Hats off to the volunteers who made the 2019 Chautauqua a success despite all that Mother Nature threw at us.

It is disappointing, without doubt, when it rains. Despite the mood it creates (when we’ve had so much rain already), rainfall puts all outdoor scheduling at risk. And yet, without question, Gallatin’s fall festival offered another serving of good hometown memories.

It’s always dangerous to single out individuals when it takes so many to make Chautauqua a success. But atop anyone’s list is Kate Chrisman, the overall chairman who keeps pumping optimism into the annual affair despite the long hours and all the phone calls. Thank you, Kate – your leadership makes our Chautauqua the envy of many other festivals.

James Wilson commented that rain doused the car show, but the 37 entries this year slightly eclipsed last year’s competition. Congratulations, James, and thank you for your hard work year after year in making the car show a mainstay of our Chautauqua.

Elaine Bohannon and Gallatin Theater League deserve kudos. Elaine packaged a rather long, laborious history written about the 1869 bank robbery into an interesting re-enactment. This isn’t Elaine’s “first rodeo” and her experience directing productions was, once again, on display in a grand way.

The melodrama at Courter Theater was a crowd pleaser. Whenever a Theater League play is on the Chautauqua schedule, good times are a guarantee, rain or shine.

Compliments, too, go out to the city’s work crew who spruced up the streets and painted the curbs around the square and helped in various ways – not the least being the placement of flag pennants fluttering overhead of Chautauqua activities. It’s great to see our pride showing!

Even first time events, when you don’t exactly know what to expect, experienced success. Friday night’s “Glowga” is an example. Yoga sessions led by Allison Spidle under blue “night lights” and the stars attracted a few adult regulars and a surprising number of youngsters, all sharing in exercise fun. And that’s the point.

Chautauqua is mostly for the kids, as well as the kid in all of us. Whether it’s the pet show, baby show, or nearly any event listed on the Chautauqua schedule, good hometown memories are being made. It takes an army of volunteers working together to make such a good thing happen. And the measure is not necessarily in crowd numbers but in smiles.

If you stayed away from this year’s Chautauqua because of the rain, well, you missed an opportunity to connect with friends and neighbors. It takes a lot of work to pull off such an event as this. We shouldn’t take such effort for granted. There are no guarantees about Chautauqua’s future. On the other hand, there’s a reason the modern festival is now 34 years old and counting. It’s family fun … whether in the rain or under the sun!

Whenever it rains on our parade no doubt festival organizers and many participating vendors must wonder if Chautauqua is worth the effort. It is and always will be, as long as people care about our hometown, as long as childhood memories about their hometown matter.

Congratulations to Kate Chrisman and to every volunteer – the folks who truly are Friends of Gallatin. Thank you one and all!