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5. Last on my list BUT far from least were THE quintessential purchases every year: disappearing ink and anything that made a ridiculous amount of noise— poppers, whistles, those tubes that turn upside down and go “whhaaaaaa… whaaaauhhhh.” If it was preposterous and under $5, I bought it!

In a season of confinement, seclusion, and social media meltdowns from seemingly everyone, wouldn’t it feel nice to just throw on your Umbros and walk down to Ole Brook? I might would even pull out my mattress money for a trip to 1993’s festival about now! I’d probably spring for the Jordan card and an extra tube of disappearing ink…just for show!

We wouldn’t know who was going to be there unless they had mentioned it at the ballpark earlier in the week or called you on the phone that had a cord stretched all the way to the living room. If it was too hot, we would just buy extra lemonade, not make a post about global warming. If it was chilly, we would more than likely have bought a cardigan from a vendor… and not proclaimed, “This is WHY I live in the South! #toocold #freezing” Danged wind…how dare it.

If someone strolled her new baby down to the festival…heavens to Betsy! Can you imagine!? It would have been our first time laying eyes on the child. “What a cutie!” we would proclaim! Now said baby strolls by…“Seen it! #precious”

While I half-joke with my own disillusion of grandiose when it comes to social media content, I do LOVE all your new baby photos and hope you love mine as well!

The seemingly everyday Americana of small-town festivals, fairs, and expos was set to make a strong comeback! With guidelines in place and a little extra effort and safety measures, I hope and pray these occasions never lose their luster for those little feet walking the streets. Those being strolled taking their first bite of funnel cake. Those taking their stinky little shoes off to jump in their inaugural bounce house. Those hearing their first live jam session. Those that carry their weekly allowance to buy some “junk.” I hope they leave Ole Brook tired. I hope they leave sweaty (or chilly…or soaking wet…).

The festival is the first weekend in October now, so it’s anyone’s guess to the weather. I hope these little feet come every year and, when they’re grown and living down the street or six hundred miles away, come back to visit family the weekend of the festival to stroll their own babies. I think it’s the kid in all of us that longs for events and days like that.

This year’s Ole Brook Festival is currently scheduled to take place October1 and 2 in downtown Brookhaven. The festival now encompasses Railroad Avenue, Whitworth Avenue, and parts of West Cherokee Street. For its upcoming forty-sixth year in Brookhaven, the Ole Brook Festival is comprised of a Friday evening block party including live music from 6 to 10 P.M. on the main stage. Saturday’s events include a 5K, Ole Brook Antique Car Show, Arts & Crafts, Flea Market, Food Truck Alley, and KidZone.

The festival is free to park, free to enter, and family friendly!

Brookhaven is proud of its thriving downtown area and looks forward to showing off its revitalization and new businesses alike. Exit 40 off I-55 has become a mecca for boutique shopping with Brookhaven and Lincoln County boasting forty-plus locally owned and operated retail shops and restaurants

We hope you and your family will join us during our Ole Brook Festival and come see for yourself why Brookhaven is considered a true “Home seeker’s Paradise”!

The festival is still accepting vendors! If you sell something unique or would like to promote your business, please visit www.brookhavenchamber.org for a vendor agreement; or give the BrookhavenLincoln County Chamber of Commerce a call at 601-833-1411. To enter the Ole Brook Antique Car Show, call 601-8338620. To find out more about Brookhaven events through the year, go to www. visitbrookhavenms.com.

Katie Nations, Program Director for the BrookhavenLincoln County Chamber of Commerce, oversees day-to-day operations at the local chamber; manages events such as her beloved Ole Brook Festival; and is passionate about the Chamber-sponsored United Way, Keep Lincoln County Beautiful, and Brookhaven Tourism Council. She lives in Brookhaven with her husband Chris (the guy she bought the Griffey, Jr., card from in 1993) and their two children, Dottie and Christopher.

PHOTOGRAPHY BY Bill Perkins

Halloween is my favorite time of year. I have had an annual Halloween bash every year since 2005 unless it was a Sunday. It all started back in Kosciusko, Mississippi, when all the super creative neighbors, unbeknownst to each other, happened to go all out for trick or treating the same year. As Halloween night progressed, they were overwhelmed as word quickly spread to come to that particular street.

The next year, everyone planned elaborate costumes and decorations. One neighbor went as far as to drain the family’s swimming pool, turn it into a graveyard, and rig mechanical skeletons to pop up. I had the party after trick-or- treating was finished. It became an annual tradition. So when I moved to Brookhaven and settled in, I decided with the support of my husband, Don Doty, to start the tradition again. We had designed our home for parties inside and out and were all set to start entertaining, so the First Annual Doty Halloween Party began in 2018.

Having had a traveling event company in the past that did custom fabrication, set work, and decorations, I found that Halloween was the only holiday that was not consumed by my business. That is why Halloween became my holiday of choice. I had time to design and execute all of my ideas for my own enjoyment at my own home with an added bonus of custom costumes, which I also loved to design. Beginning the last week of September were the tasks of completing costumes and transforming the house. My first Doty party theme was “A Very Scary Apothecary.” I imagined it was far beneath a castle tucked away in one of the dungeon corridors. A Magic Sorcerer was the beverage attendant and behind her were shelves of glowing, under-lit bottles of all colors and mysterious labels. With COVID being a new addition to everyone’s lives, the Third Annual Doty Halloween party was on and off. I put the band, which was booked a year ahead, on standby as we debated the fate of the party. Don and I worked through extensive planning for social distancing and managing the food service and the purchase of tents; and we decided to have the party outside. All of us had to wear a mask anyway with our costumes, right? I kept the theme “Scary Seas” since I had already planned the year before. There would be mermaids, scary ocean creatures, and pirates! I had to. The house surrounds a front courtyard with French doors opening into every main room of the house. Therefore, for interior decorations, all those doors were opened to reveal a vignette in each room. The living room was entirely lighted—floors, Page 34 { September / October 2021 { Bluffs & Bayous wall, and ceiling with a moving, bluewave water effect. Animated, suspended, and swimming mermaids hung overhead.

The dining room’s oil paintings had custom Kraken shipwreck artwork and pirate portraits installed within the frames covering the paintings. The chandelier and wall sconces were embellished with Halloween decorative features making them unrecognizable. Attached to the overthe-mantle mirror were floating skeleton hands holding candles. Constructed glass shards were designed to go around the hands so they looked as if they were breaking through the glass. It was turned into a sort of museum with all kinds of curiosities lit up and described.

The entry hall was a bat cave, complete with stalactites and stalagmites and shimmering blue water to walk over that opened into an underground seacave. The opening of the sea-cave was completely covered with a screen that was back projected with moving images of mermaids pulling pirates down into the sea and scary, glowing kraken eyes peering at guests.

Another room was turned into a pirate’s private parlor. Again all the rooms’ light fixtures were transformed with crossed pirate pistols and swords. A collection of antique silhouettes was covered with pirate captain silhouettes. The sofa was black and the oil painting boasted a fictional renowned female pirate from the past.

Outside, the courtyard and front of the house were bathed in blue animated watereffect lights. A giant menacing Kraken head and eye peaked above the surface, its body submerged; but tentacles as tall as the house reached above the water surface