Sidewalk cheer

BRIANNA BUTLER Artist/Vendor

Walk with me down the curving pathways to freedom with love, cheer and happiness.

Each step plays a note to uplift your spirits. Roller skate with excitement to relieve all the things you feel pressured about. Grab those skates and let yourself go free. Twist, slide and wave up and and down the lighted boulevard trail. Dance until your feet can’t handle it anymore. Let the music take you in flashy colors to places you’ve never been. Look around you and admire the scenery of teetering flower petals at the heartbeat of the music. Grab some popcorn and have a great time. Come on! Let your body flow with delight. The more people you bring the more we could be scouting for a star. Keep moving until the music stops!

JACKIE TURNER

Artist/Vendor see my grandchildren grow up. As soon as the Republicans loosened restrictions, it seems more people are getting Covid-19 and dying from it. Usually, these people are ones that aren’t vaccinated with underlying health issues.

I was in the same program, about three and a half years ago. I graduated. Came home, and got into an outpatient program. Graduated from that, too. So I felt so good. Darn it. Then Covid hit. They closed down and went virtual. Why did that happen? So I started trying to sell newspapers but it got harder and harder. One day after selling newspapers, I ran into an old friend. That was always my downfall. Anyway, she was a counselor. I told her about my addiction. So she helps me get a job, and save up money to get back into this program. Today, I’ve been here for two months and two days. My plan is to stay in recovery. I also plan to do something called transitional housing. Looking forward to it. Stay clean.

I keep my mask on among crowds because I know everybody is not vaccinated. I can’t do Russian roulette when it comes to my health. I do encourage everybody to get vaccinated and to get their yearly shorts too.

Yes, it does take a toll on your body and mind, being vaccinated. At least I’m alive and can think about staying healthy at all times.

FREDERIC JOHN Artist/Vendor

What shall our curriculum be today?

Shall it lay trivial or profound, “Gather ye rosebuds while ye may,”

Or “John Brown lieth moldering in the ground?” The whirling orb persists in its spin Regardless the random note its trajectory Perhaps we plug our ears from the din And no solace is found inside the rectory! Would it be allowable a bold invictus — Anything to save us from fatal rictus: March on, take heart, recreate faith, Recall the nobility of native forest or heath! We have passed the age of mandated bloodshed; Time to pick up the horn and hit the woodshed.

When you’re young it’s not as though eight and nine-year-olds can remember events that happened when they were two or three. Of course, teenagers can tell you songs and history and all the latest happenings. By age 20 you are sharp and want to learn. But all you remember is whatever you are into at the moment.

For some reason, you remember as long as you can think. However, after age 65 or so things often move faster than you can think. Sometimes you need 60 seconds to remember!

It doesn’t help that you second-guess yourself because people say, “You’re getting old.” The truth is your brain can process as long as you stimulate it unless you develop a defect, which people worry about, although only one in nine people over 65 develop Alzheimer’s. So, memory is a thing you can work with.

Remember that!