From the Editor
Chester RFD
By Mark Fausz
Aug 27, 2008 - 8:06:00 AM

There has been a major phenomenon growing in the center of Chester. An activity that had been thought dead long ago. An interaction as seen on TV and movies like “Northern Exposure,” Pleasantville,  and of course “Andy Griffith.”

Each week on Chester’s Village Green a gathering of souls, outside of church, who come together by chance and intention, are finding that tomorrow’s nostalgia could be here today.

Some of the old-timers over the years have talked about what it was like in Chester and Chesterfield years ago. There was not a day that went by without a group of men gathering under a grand old oak near where the Dunkin’ Donuts is today, to share stories and “hold court” – discuss the important issues of the day.

That tradition was lost as those who had participated aged and died and a new generation took its place. But it was no longer happening under an oak tree. The community gathering place became a chat outside the PTA meeting or a conversation in a golf cart on a par 4.

If you are a regular reader of this column or the Village News, you know that we favor the nostalgic. That we enjoy looking at the good times of the past – there is surely something to learn there.

I believe that there is a tremendous amount of knowledge and local lore to absorb, and an understanding of what this community once was could help us understand what it could be in the future.

So each Saturday morning, the Chester Farmer’s Market is set up on Chester’s Village Green. The event, organized by Nicole Jordan and facilitated by the Chester Community Association, has been slow in getting attention, but each week a number of vendors come out to ply their wares. Since the market is in its first year, some food vendors have been hard to come by, and efforts like this can take years to get established. It is, however, getting better as local produce has become available.

But aside from the produce, the hand-crafted items, organic meats, and French loaves, it has become a gathering place, a new oak tree under which to congregate. A place to sit and chat about whatever comes to mind, and the world slows down.

I realized Saturday morning as I was sitting with some local folks around a table just inside the breezy arts center office that this is just what I have yearned for; the nostalgic camaraderie that died with the demise of Chester as a small town.

I am not one to find solace in a church pew, a civic club, or throwing back beers at the local watering hole. I am a people person, one who enjoys the company of others, who enjoys more than most anything hearing about the lives of my neighbors: their trials, tribulations, their take on local, state, or national politics, and the tenacity of the American spirit.

The Busy Bea’s coffee group or Truby’s afternoon jawing were similar musings, but I was never there.

The fictional Floyd’s Barber Shop in Mayberry comes to mind when I think of the front porch of the arts center and the aged dining table inside that accommodates round table discussions.

Each time I am there, different people have joined the conversation, and topics have ranged from what the county supervisors are doing to the architecture of what has become downtown Chester. On Saturday, my experience covering Barack Obama’s visit to Chester was of some interest, not because there are like-minded political views, but because the Chester visit of a possible future president of the United States is news, whether in the newspaper or by personal report.

It’s hard to say whether the developers of the Chester Village Green envisioned a town center that would allow the rebuilding of a sense of place in Chester. But as it comes together, building grows to completion, and activity increases, it becomes obvious that the new center of Chester will be part of the nostalgic memories of our children and grandchildren. They will have tales to tell of how it was in their town growing up.

They will not be tales of cul-de-sacs and gated communities. If we continue in the right direction, their memories will be of walking around town eating an ice cream, seeing a concert on the Green, and the time one of their friends dumped their principal into the drink at the dunking booth during ChesterFest.

These are the good old days. Let’s make the best of them. We need to continue the dream started on the Green and let it spread and always protect it.

Come on by, sit a spell, kick off your flip-flops, and be sure to come back now.

mfausz@villagepublishing.com | 751-0421

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