Baker Street was filling up with people and some of them had claimed picnic tables as the opening band warmed up. Workers had closed off the street before sunset and now, as darkness fell, the temperature was at that perfect level where you didn’t need long sleeves or a jacket, but it wasn’t hot and the breeze was just right.

Some joyous screams from children were coming from the bouncy castles back toward Center Avenue, and for a moment my mind went back to block parties we had when I was young back in the 70s. At eight years old that electric shudder would run through your body when you were up and outside past dark and there were other kids to play with and you could run and scream and play tag and look up and see the moon in the clear and darkened sky.

I remember those block parties, particularly one right before the election in 1976 when Jimmy Carter was running against Gerald Ford. It was the year of the bicentennial, and the adults would talk peaceably about the election, but no one was angry or violent or calling people names who disagreed with them. And on this night, far in the future from 1976, hundreds of people gathered and sat and shared drinks and laughed and listened to live music under the stars and I didn’t hear an angry word.

This was the second straight weekend when downtown was wide open and attendance was free and there was live music and entertainment and people could come together in a peaceful community event. That’s right. So many people – the usual complainers – had been angry about the “Feels Like Home” festival that they never paused to realize that the previous night (Friday night) all of downtown had hosted a Preview Party. And this event, a week later, free to the public, with live music and fun for the children, I suspect only a few of the chronic complainers made it out.

But we were there, and it was great. We sat out in front of the Pioneer Taphouse (big sponsor of the event) and hung out with Jordan from Turnkey Realty (another sponsor) and later we hung out at the On-Time Cigar Lounge in the garden next to the Realty. Everyone was happy and having fun and it was a good time.

Events like this happen all of the time, especially when the weather is nice. Downtown is a respite from the angry and divisive reality of the big box world. But you can’t get chronic whiners to act in their own best interest, even if it means their survival. I talk a lot in this space about taking advantage of our wonderful Downtown as a revolutionary act of defiance against the divisive and harmful tendencies of the modern world. I talk about spending your money locally and helping family-owned businesses survive and thrive in troubling times. And part of me, the part that is still that nine-year-old kid back in 1976, longs for a more peaceful and joyful time, screaming excitedly into the night.

Sometime soon, and it’s already happening, but sometime soon the corporate shills and talking heads and paid propagandists will start talking more about walkable “15-minute cities” – artificial neighborhoods all bought and paid for with stolen tax dollars, or by George Soros and Walmart and Big Pharma and Zuckerburg – faux cities like the malls were when they were built – and the same NPCs who spend all of their money at the big box or online businesses while crying about everything their own decisions pay for – will be all for artificial environments and faux freedom planned and paid for by the usual suspects.

Hey! The holidays are coming. Take some time and some percentage of your anticipated holiday spending and use it in a way that actually matters. That’s the message.

On that night, last Saturday, when the band played and the people smiled and the children ran and screamed with joy, I had a strange overlapped vision of what once was, and what can still be. You should try it.

***

Michael Bunker is a local columnist for BrownwoodNews.com whose columns appear on Wednesdays and Sundays on the website.