The ugly of this past weekend was the weather that nature shared with us. The dark clouds and continuous rain that were a far cry from the normal bright, sunny, warm days of late summer and early fall that we truly enjoy dampened our spirits.

The bad is that this past weekend’s weather brought the best festival of the season to a bit of a standstill. Not only were throngs of people unable to enjoy the wholesomeness of the show, the good food, the games and exhibits, but most importantly, many very worthwhile clubs, groups and organizations will not be able to meet their annual budgets and, therefore, much good community work will go undone. This is truly the bad of it.

On the other hand, I was blessed to experience joy and feel some of the good of the weekend. I am one of the tractor enthusiasts. Yes, we do spend a lot of time, hard work and money to own, restore, maintain and show our tractors in our effort to relive and preserve the past. However, we are justly rewarded as we proudly paraded our tractors, feeling not the chill of the rainy days, but feeling warmth from the smiles and waves from the youngsters, their parents, their families and friends who braved the weather to watch as we drove our tractors into town on Main Street and back to the festival via Locust Street. This was good.

I would like to express my sincere thanks to all who stood in the rain on the sidewalks, their driveways, their porches and in their yards to view the parade. You are appreciated. May we mark our calendars and make our plans to make the 2019 festival the best. It’s for sure, the weather will be better.

Miles L. Barrere

Wilmington