One of my favorite truisms goes like this: When you are under the age of 35 and you turn in on Sunday evening after the weekend with your spouse, partner, or in this day and age, whatever floats your boat, the conversation usually sounds something like, “What a great weekend. Party at the lake on Friday night, concert Saturday night, and lying around watching sports all day Sunday.”
At 35 years of age and beyond, a Sunday evening usually goes something like this: “Man, we sure got a lot done this weekend.”
At Tucker Publishing Group, we have long been the de facto keepers of the community calendar. When you edit every word of the calendar listings, you quickly learn one thing by default — there are a lot of happenings and events going on in our community on any given weekend. The weekend of Sept. 22-24 was certainly no exception. With a house full of guests in town to attend University of Evansville’s opening swim meet to watch my cousin’s son swim, we took special note of what was available should anyone wish to avail themselves of local offerings. For guests ranging in ages from 16 to 85 (a damn active 85 at that), the weekend was a treasure trove of things to do and decisions to be made. So here are some of the major events one could choose from:
• High school and college sports — The best high school soccer in the state is played here, and football, as well.
• An incredible display of vintage buses Downtown.
• Huge quilt festival, Harvest of Quilts
• Evansville Member Wander — An event celebrating the city’s seven culturalinstitutions by encouraging members of one to visit the other six free of charge.
• Hilliard Lyons Bridge Run from Reo, Indiana, to Owensboro, Kentucky
• USI Art Day
• An Evansville Philharmonic Orchestra concert, featuring Bela Fleck
• WNIN Kids Fest
• Gilda’s Club Carnival
• River City Faith Fest
• SWIRCA’s annual Brewfest at Bosse Field — Featuring 400 beers!
• Vanderburgh County Extension Fine Arts and Craft Show
• Funk in the City — Which continues to be better every year.
• British Car Show at the Old Lock and Dam in Newburgh, Indiana — Always a terrific event.
• Race for the Cure — If your lip doesn’t quiver at least once during this event check your pulse. One of the largest in the nation, up to 6,200 people participated this year.
This was but one weekend in the River City. My rationale for this exercise? The next time I hear someone say there is nothing to do here, nothing going on in our community, I will know it was their own fault they didn’t have anything to do.
The best part of that weekend? I didn’t go to bed Sunday night and say, “We sure got a lot done this weekend.”
What about new local restaurants? Too hard to even try to keep track. But as anyone who reads this letter knows, I digress. Again.
As always, I look forward to hearing from you.
Todd A. Tucker
Publisher
