Colleen and our children, Jared, Rachel, and Joshua, say I tend to overthink things. When my wife would point this out, she’d say, “Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar,” as the semi-old saying goes, and we’d laugh. You would too, if you heard it in her Bronx accent and imitable tone. But to laugh as hard as I do when she says it, you’d probably have to be as in love with her now as you were the moment you laid eyes on her as she sat in the seventh row of Temple Emmanuel on the Upper East Side of Manhattan 50 years ago this December.
In any case, it may very well have been the case, I confess, that I was overthinking things as I entered the Maple Lawn area to take a gander at what was to offer at today’s Maple Lawn Street Festival (MLSF). Colleen and I drove our RV to it instead of renting a car for just one of us. We figured we could relocate our home-on-wheels to that part of town as we like to do periodically in our getting-to-know-HoCo pursuits these days. Neither she nor the GPS voice lady could convince me that the “exits” in a traffic rotary could be numbered “first,” “second, “third,” and so on, in a series. It’s a circle! “The fourth exit” depends on where you enter the rotary. Colleen pointed out that the GPS knew where I entered the many rotaries in Maple Lawn, hence her identification of a particular one as “first” or “second” or what have you made sense. And then I got it. A couple really begins to share one mind after so long together, it’s true. Or did they from the start?
Sometimes I’m certain that our pets’ minds become one with ours too. As we pulled into our parking spot near the Festival, Moses, our dachshund-boxer mix, perked up suddenly. His eyebrows began to dance like energetic mountains as he woke from an adorably snore-filled slumber. Soon his squat front legs were pressed up against a window looking out on a gathering crowd exiting their cars and meandering their ways toward the Festival entrance. Perhaps even Moses, observant canine that he is, was thinking what I was: what a motley crew! His cute, whip-like dachshund tail was certainly excited about something that his dark, chestnut eyes observed!
I left Colleen and Moses to paint the inside of our RV, or perhaps the parking lot, red and gathered my things–cell phone, notebook, wallet, and business cards, stuffing them into my fanny pack from Eddie Bauer, securing it with a comforting “click” around my waist. Before making a creaky descent onto the asphalt below our home-on-wheels due to aging-but-about-to-get-some-exercise knees, I glanced at the cards. “Retired But Not Tired,” they read and I yelled back to Colleen that she was right, they were funny and also a very useful thing to have in our HoCo exploratory pursuits.
After a brisk walk to get my knees and hips and heart muscle stretched out, during which I imagined how silly I looked doing that charmingly priggish, overly-energetic powerwalk walk, I added to the wackiness and laughed out loud. I came up to the Festival’s main entrance, an awning under which three tee-shirt-clad staffers stood. They were pleasantly relaxed and seemed to be enjoying each other’s company.
“Are you Malinda?” I asked one of them.
Her vibrant blue, catlike eyes came a little more alive and she said, “I am Malinda, and you must be Robert. From the email!” she said, referencing the message I’d had sent her in her capacity as a higher-up at Full Moon Marketing and Events, the company that put together and was in charge of the Maple Lawn Festival.
I am, indeed, I confirmed to her, and we marveled at what an oddly serendipitous meeting it was. She said with a conspiratorial grin that the fair would get pretty hectic soon, so she and I should probably speak later. I noted this was a great idea, as it would give me a chance to wander about the fair and fall in love with Maple Lawn. I took her card, and before I knew it, she had whipped out her walkie to walkie-talkie-speak some directions firmly but pleasantly into it. I had a momentary flashback to a scene from my favorite 1970s cop show, Starsky and Hutch. Then I made my way into the Festival’s gathering melee.
Malinda told me, first though, that she’d put me in touch with Wendy Ingram Braswell, the co-owner with her of Full Moon Marketing and Events, their company and the one putting on the Maple Lawn Festival.
Fudge and Funnel Cake
When those two words are involved, nothing can go wrong, if you have a sweet tooth like mine. Colleen lives and dies for chocolate, so I picked her up a block of fudge made and sold by Edward Heller of Chocolate Moonshine D.C. I made a mental note to get myself some funnel cake.
Heller assured me, meanwhile, as he cut me off a chunk of dreamy-looking, light brown fudge, pecans nestled mouth-wateringly in it, all surrounded by caramel, with hands encased by loose plastic gloves, that this fudge wasn’t as indulgent as I feared. It was made with real cane sugar. It tasted just like its more sugary, less healthy counterpart, still! I put the confection back in the wrapping and bag Heller gave me and into my fanny pack.
Yummy sweets: always a good way to begin any experience. And a great segue into my next Festival stop, which had noshes for another kind of being: dogs.
Related: See what local politician Guy Guzzone told Colleen about his life in policy-making.
Sit! Stand, Rather, and Look at This!
Next was a both for Social Tailwaggers, LLC, Animal Training and Behavior Consultation. Jody Broughton, CPDT-KA, a dog trainer and behavior consultant who specializes in puppy socialization pointed out some of the fun, educational toys she was selling as the company’s owner.
She directed my attention to a Snuffle Pad on the table in front of me. She said you sprinkle your dog’s food in it, and then the pet roots around in it for said victuals. Not only is this cute, it goes without saying, but it aids brain development. I could just picture Moses making an adorably noisy meal of some kibble Colleen or I would sprinkle into the one I bought for him. Broughton gave me a free cheddar cheese treat for Moses. Moses loves cheese! So I know I’ll be investing in Broughton’s goods again soon.
Broughton smiled proudly–and rightfully so, because her offerings seemed top-notch–as I took a picture of her.
Braswell had told me that 10,000 people would visit the Festival that day, so I figured I’d better get a move on before too many more came and I couldn’t talk to booth-runners in as much depth.
Holy Festivus
As I continued my wandering, I thought of the word “festival,” and my amateur’s interest in English etymology sparked the memory of the Seinfeld episode in which the gang celebrated an alternative to Christmas, Festivus. The English word “festival,” derives most recently from the Old French festival, “a time of festive celebration.” This is according to my Chamber’s Dictionary of Etymology, which I schlepped with me to HoCo from Manhattan because it’s a source of pleasure, comfort, and endless reference for me. Also, I realized how much I think about TV shows, and thought I must point this out to Colleen later, as it’s proof they’re very important to me. Hence, we need that little T V with a handle on top I also lugged with us from Manhattan, even if I haven’t figure out a way to make it work in an RV in cable-monopolized 2018 just yet.
Deeper in the heart of the MLSF now, the belly of the beast, if you will, I came upon the booth for the Democratic Party of Howard County. As a lifelong Dem, I simply had to stop to talk to the people working at it. Two youngsters who smiled sweetly when I waved at them watched with admiration as the man I assumed was their father helped hoist a large banner with the local party’s logo above the booth. He told me his name was Scott Berkowitz.
“You’re not the Scott Berkowitz who just got elected to Howard County’s Democratic Central Committee, are you?” He said he was, and I shook his hand, truly feeling as if I were meeting a celebrity. That’s how you feel when you interact with this fellow. I thought, “He’s going places.” And because I like to follow the trajectory of people who I can just tell will be running the world, I told him who I was and that I wanted to add him on social media. He laughed a golden laugh of earnest humility and said, “That’d be great.” Just then, a little one tugged at his shirt to ask a little-one question.
I shot the breeze with some others at the booth for a while, and I met Mae A. Beale, also a recently elected member of the county’s Democratic Central Committee. As I left that booth, I recognized Safa Hira, another winner in the race for Democratic Central Committee decided on June 26th. She, her mother, Samiyah, it turned out, and her sister, Shaista, wore t-shirts with “Calvin Ball” emblazoned on them and Safa looked a tad overheated from carrying water bottles to the booth. But she still looked quite beautiful, her hair cut in a sporty, angular bob and tied back in the front.
Calvin Ball, I knew, as Colleen and I were becoming acquainted with local politics, is a member of the Howard County Council representing District 2. He also made it through the June 26th primary in the race to be the area’s next County Executive. He was there, so I had another moment of celebrity fawning.
I couldn’t help noticing as I spoke with him about his vision of making Howard County the inclusive, smartly growing place its founders promised it would be, how he looked put together and stylish in the blistering heat that was taking down snowcones and hairdos left and right.
Then, I–oh, no: the fudge! I checked on that prized possession of mine and found it to be a tad worse for the wear but still intact. Good thing!
I decided that it was time to avoid some sort of heat-related physical emergency and begin my return to the Morgenthau RV. As I doubled back, I saw the booth for the Ceder Ridge Community Church.
“We do a lot with the Idara-e-Jaferia,” Matthew Dyer told me of his faith community and its work with a local Shi’a Muslim mosque. For a moment I lost myself in the dulcet tones of his British accent and his dark eyes. Hey–I’m 67-years-old and was getting parched, but I know what a bromance is and how to do it right! The sunny smiles of the women and fellow parishioners flanking him brought me back to Maple Lawn. I snapped a photo of them and thought, “Where in the Bible does it say you’re allowed to be holy and this glamorous? Must be the New Testament, which, being Jewish, I’m not well-versed in!”
Bringing It Home
The punishing sun of mid-July Maryland was definitely taking its toll on me, as I decided to make the most unthinkable decision I could have made. I thought that since I had the fudge already, I’d forgo the funnel cake! Bad, Robert! Bad! You never skip the funnel cake! I was making a funnel shape with my path back to the RV, at least, I thought. And as I hobbled now, sweatier than propriety allows, I thought, this place is just amazing, this HoCo. Even at a festival, which is inherently a melange of people, places, and things, what really struck me was Maple Lawn’s diversity. The ethnicities of the people, the businesses and business models, the activities available, they all ran the gamut.
“I’m glad I I saw you before I left!” I said to a woman identified only as “Sabrina,” as I got a card and information from the Psychic Meditation Center, the last booth I interacted with before climbing my weary bones into the RV. Colleen would –and did–love the prospect of “a reading,” as she put it.
Moses was excited that I’d returned. He hopped into my lap–with a little help from me, it’s true, given those squat legs.
That’s What Snacks Are For
We had little in the way of food in the RV, having not gone grocery shopping in several days, so I tore into that fudge. It replenished some of what the heat and trans-festival traipsing had depleted. So I called Braswell at the number listed on the card Malinda gave me to ask her some questions about MLSF.
“The Street Festival is an anniversary celebration of the opening of the community, a gift to the community from the master developer, Greenebaum Enterprises. We aim to bring families from the community, as well as folks from the county to the campus who may not have known Maple Lawn had so much to offer its neighbors,” Braswell told me in a post-glass-of-water phone conversation over the phone.
Well, then, I thought, this is a community that, if RoCo decides to stay put in HoCo, Colleen and I would likely be taking a closer look at. Maple Lawn, I decided, as Braswell spoke and I smiled at how petite Colleen looked behind the gargantuan wheel of the RV, was a microcosm of HoCo itself.
“Maple Lawn is a live, work, play destination between Washington, D.C. and Baltimore. The community has everything you need on campus: single family homes, townhomes and condos; doctors, lawyers, and business offices galore; and amazing retail in grocers, convenience stores, banks, a pet store, clothing stores, salons, mouth-watering restaurants and much more,” Braswell exclaimed. I could tell she loved Maple Lawn the way Colleen and I loved HoCo overall. And why not! It is HoCo, just within a smaller geographic space!
This fall, on October 13th from 1:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Full Moon Marketing and Events is set to host the Autumn Harvest Music Festival. It’s similar to MLSF, but on a smaller scale, Braswell told me. It’s free to attend. Additionally, it will have the following: a kids zone with pony rides, pumpkin decorating, moon bounces, face painting, food trucks, a beer garden, live music, and lots of shopping.
Braswell and I ended our conversation with advice I solicited about the best way to enjoy a Full Moon event.
“Come early, stay late, and don’t drink and drive,” Braswell said with a smile I could detect over the phone. Then I asked to speak to Malinda about her favorite ice cream. She said it was strawberry with Chocolate Sprinkles. Luckily, we were in another traffic rotary, so Colleen was able to maneuver a U-turn to go back the Harris Teeter behind us. I had to have a bowl of that right then.
Also: Vaughan Turner of the Howard County Fair Association dished to Colleen about all things Fair!
–Robert Morgenthau
Thanks for reading! Check back with us each here at rocoinhoco.com every week as Robert, Colleen (and pup, Moses) get to know the many facets—one each week–of this prismatic place called Howard County. We want to take you along with us, so follow us on Twitter at @rocoinhoco, join our Facebook group, and follow us on Instagram at @rocoinhoco.