By: Charles Romans
Carter County Times
Droves of people from around Carter County and surrounding counties descended on Grayson this past Saturday for the city’s popular Octoberfest event. Set up in the style of a fall festival type community fair along Grayson’s Main Street, participants enjoyed food, live music, and vendors from across the region, while the brisk fall temperatures made wearing costumes more pleasant than it would have been less than a month prior when the thermometer broke the 90-degree mark.
Main Street businesses also got involved in the festival, with many shops extending their hours until 8 pm to greet people and take part in the last big event before Hometown Holidays. Among the many offerings, firepits were set up across from the Justice Center to provide a fall favorite, smores. And behind those firepits, just beyond the glass storefront of Nook & Cranny Coffee House, both young and old patrons of the festival were able to enjoy another favorite pastime of the fall and Halloween season – creepy stories.
Call them campfire tales, or urban legends, or folklore, but nearly everyone loves a spooky story. With Halloween less than a week away, and with coffee, sandwiches, and pastries flowing, part of the Octoberfest crowd made its way inside to listen to – and tell some of their own – spooky tales. A terrified college student alone in her dorm room, a hunter’s trophy that was not quite what it seemed, and the impression of a possibly angelic visitor all shared space with people’s experiences with what might possibly have been ghosts.
A thrill to get the blood pumping a little faster on a chilly night is a good thing, especially when we know ourselves to be safe from what lurks in those scary tales. And Appalachia has a long tradition with spooky tales that are often passed down from generation to generation. Those tales flow through the rivers and blow through the trees on cold breezes. It is in fact part of our culture, and we smirk knowingly when ‘city folk’ dismiss those tales. Even if we ourselves don’t actually believe some of them ourselves, we acknowledge the possibility that at least a few may be true.
In spite (or perhaps because) of it being the Halloween season, there was nothing scary about the numbers of people who turned out for an evening of fun and the day leading up to it.
The event was put on by the Grayson Tourism Commission, but Tourism Director Lana Axtell was quick to give credit to the individuals and organizations who stepped up to help the event become such a huge success.
“The turnout exceeded my wildest dreams,” Axtell said. “There were three times as many people as were here last year. And all the shops along main street, and all the vendors who set up said that they had a lot of people come through.”
The beauty pageant was a great success, and Axtell said people could visit the tourism social media pages to see the winners. The parade was also a success, she said, and over one hundred people turned out for breakfast earlier in the day. In addition to that, the First Church of Christ reported that over 400 families participated in their Trunk or Treat event.
“The Hailey Bayes Art Show was also a huge success,” Axtell said. “And Carter County Tourism stepped up and helped with the Pumpkin Patch, and that went really well.”
The success of the Octoberfest festival proves that everyone enjoys a good evening of fun, food, and entertainment. And though the spooky tales might be replaced by Christmas music, and the s’mores might be replaced by hot chocolate, the next party is just around the corner.
Contact the writer at charles@cartercountytimes.com
