Bill Lynch: Missing celebrating community

You no doubt saw the announcement this summer that the oldest harvest celebration in the State of California, dating back to 1897, had been canceled due to COVID-19 pandemic.

In case you don’t know, that celebration is our own Valley of the Moon Vintage Festival, which normally comes on the last weekend of September every year, except this one.

I’ll miss it, if only because I can still recall visions of the festivals all the way back to my early childhood when it was our little town’s biggest and most important event.

Looking back now, there was nothing particularly spectacular about those Vintage Festivals of the mid 20th Century. In fact, they were the antithesis of later and larger festivals held in other cities.

What marked them as special was the total involvement of Sonoma Valley residents.

Local nonprofits and church groups set up booths, selling beverages, food, sweets and home-baked goods of all kinds. There were some games as well. I remember the Schell-Vista Fire Department had a game booth in which the participants threw potatoes at large, tubular, Italian salamis hanging on string in front of a canvas backstop. If you hit one of the salamis with a potato, the salami was your prize.

It was a great time to be a kid.

I was among a couple of dozen Boy Scouts who camped overnight in the Plaza for the weekend to “guard” the booths after they shut down for the night. Whether we were actually effective as guards or not, it was a lot of fun.

There were historical pageants, the blessing of the grapes, a Spanish Ball and a small parade around the Plaza, in which all of the entries were local. Business owners decorated their front windows in historical and wine themes, and the Index-Tribune published a large tabloid program that included many articles and photos on the history of Sonoma Valley, its vintners and wineries.

Most of us knew or were related to each other in some way.

The people manning the booths sold their goods mostly to friends, neighbors and members of their own organization. Participants in the parade were the town’s children, including me and my friends. We dressed as cowboys, Indians and pioneers, put costumes on our dogs and decorated our bicycles. There were a few floats and one or two local dignitaries, like the mayor, in restored old Model A’s and other vintage cars. The town band was a combination of the high school band supplemented by other local residents who could play instruments.

It was then, and I believe remains so today, a sweet anachronism, a reminder of simpler times.

I don’t know if we can ever go back there. But I believe in trying.

There is something to be said for turning off the modern inventions that were supposed to bring us all closer together, but seem to have done the opposite. There is a great need in all of us to connect with other people, not in pixels and airwaves, but in direct, face-to-face conversation, shared music, food and laughter.

The closest modern version of this was (until the pandemic) the Tuesday night farmers markets in the Sonoma Plaza, and the City Party and the Red and White Ball. There is something in those celebrations that reminds me of the Vintage Festival times more than a half-century ago.

So, when we are finally through this awful year, and we can take off our masks and come together again, we will more appreciate and value the opportunities that truly local events like our venerable Vintage Festival present, if we choose to make them happen.

We are most fortunate to live in this very special community and we should do our best to enjoy it together as soon as possible.