Just park next to George…

I spent this past Saturday evening hanging out at the Mount Forest Fireworks Festival with my little sister-in-law, Alaina. We had a great time. The fireworks were pretty darn good…well at least by Mount Forest standards.

There was a mid-way with games, rides and all the cotton candy you could eat, plus a well packed beer tent, and of course, a lengthy fireworks display set to music and everything! Now, it’s been 9 years since I attended this festival, so my enthusiasm might be overdone, but it’s come a long way in that time! However, for as upscale as the fireworks festival may have been, you simply can’t take the small town out of Mount Forest….

As we drove into the parking lot, paid our money and moseyed to the very back where there was paking left, a great moment occured. It was one of those moments that very quickly reminds you where you are and that it is in fact, a very small town. We approached the kind man who was directing usjust after he had finished directing (and chatting) with the big pickup in front of us. He peered in our window, said good evening and said we can park ‘just over there, beside George’ and proceeded to point in the general direction of all the rest of the vehicles. I stared back at him for a minute until he realized, then he corrected himself and said, ‘by that big truck.’

I loved this. The first thought, which I quickly chuckled out loud to Alaina, was only in Mount Forest does this stuff happen. Only here does someone direct traffic in a several thousand person event by saying ‘just over there, besside George.’ And while smiling with the most pleasent mayberry smile no less! It was perfect.


It’s a moment like this that reminds me why my husband and I decided to settle in a smaller community (though not nearly as small as Mount Forest….). Sure, we could have stayed in Barrie or commuted from just above Toronto like so many others, but we’d miss that small communtiy feel. Ideally speaking, everyone would think it’s acceptable to direct traffic to park ‘just over there, by George.’

Comments

  1. says

    Every time I drive through Mount Forest I kind of want to move there. Okay, let’s be honest, I love many of those Western Ontario farm towns, but Mount Forest specifically is a place that gives me warm fuzzies whenever I drive through it.

    (the ‘Park beside George’ thing sounds like something that would happen in Victoria Harbour)

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