A Sweet Goodbye & The Best of Macon- July 2024
I feel so old as a type this.
I can remember being on a Taste of the Arts committee for the Macon Arts Alliance- somewhere around 2012? And I can remember having a conversation about scheduling events and working them around other things. You see, back then you could schedule an event in Macon and pretty reliably know it wouldn’t conflict with another one.
That is no longer the case.
This past week my oldest son and I were at the grocery store and ran into Jim Crisp- for those who don’t know, Jim founded and led Theatre Macon for so many years. My son asked how did I know Jim, and I gave him the context.
Then my oldest said something that rocked my world: “I should really do more things like that- go to the theater. I shouldn’t be on my computer so much, I should be making memories with you because I don’t have much time left before I need to grow up.”
When your teenager says something like that- you take action. We later ran into Jim again and I told him what my oldest said, and Jim told us that Newsies was being shown through the next weekend and we should go. To which my son said “yes! I’d love to”. And so I bought the tickets. I did not think about how it would conflict with Bragg Jam.
And so the dilemma was there- we had already booked our tickets for Theatre Macon’s closing night- and closing night is always my favorite to attend. But we would also miss Bragg Jam while also being right downtown. Should we do both?
We ultimately elected not to, thinking it would be too much. But it also made me think of how much Macon has grown. How sometimes you have to miss an event, even if it’s one you love, for another. There was a time when we didn’t have this problem- and it’s a fantastic problem to have!
It also makes me think back on my favorite Bragg Jam: 2015. It was the Bragg Jam that broke my heart, because so many people were moving away. People who had been there for me during my divorce, who were formative in helping me pick myself back up from being oh so broken. It was also one of my favorite performances by my friend Floco Torres- who would leave the following year, moving to Akron- where our other friends Chris and Roger had moved to. In fact, this Bragg Jam was the last one with Roger as he would move right after.
That Bragg Jam I remember walking to my car alone, as I don’t do goodbyes. Or rather, I didn’t then. I’ve come to see the beauty in them. Goodbyes also mean growth.
Macon has said goodbye to the days of there not being enough to do- this was confirmed this past weekend. My son has also now fallen in love with the theater, raving about our dinner at Oliver’s Corner Bistro, pre-dinner dessert and treats at Sweet Eleanor’s, running into friends downtown – and catching a bit of Bragg Jam coming down the street, and an amazing performance at Theatre Macon. In fact, he wants to go back for more.
It looks like I’m also saying goodbye to the pre-teen era of my oldest child, as he is starting to come into his own. He went to Mercer’s soccer camp this summer, the first time he agreed to go to a spend the night camp, and he has declared this is where he wants to go to college.
Yeah… I think this goodbye will actually be sweet.
