I had invited some people to go with me but all of them seemed to be busy. I usually don't go to things of this nature alone but the desire to get out Winter Park/Downtown and do something outside of the usual fare was enough to entice me to drive all the way to Celebration and go to the festival alone.
Celebration has grown so much since 2002-2004 when I frequented on a almost nightly basis while in college just up the road. These days its age is starting to show, some yards aren't as up kept as they were 7 years ago, and many of the houses have paint that is starting to fade. This though, along with the plants that are finally growing large, makes Celebration seem all the more authentic.
This authenticity is something that I at first, while walking up the 6 or so blocks away that I had to park from the festival, viewed as negative. A ruining of the sound stage perfection that Celebration was. But then as I walked by the numerous houses, glancing in windows and looking at each houses yard, I began to see that Celebration was actually becoming a community. It has been 15 years since it first broke ground. I can still remember being a kid and walking out into the cow pastures seeing the facades of what was to come (before it was built the developers built movie set like facades of the houses to showcase what they would look like, these facades though were only about 2 feet deep and behind laid the vast untouched cow pastures that is now downtown Celebration). Celebration is one of the reasons why I love urban development. As a child the idea of an entire being carved out of the swamp and cow pasture was something that took my imagination to new levels. This idea of a town that is entirely planned ahead of time seemed like such a great idea (I still think it is).
Baldwin Park was another place that caught imagination in this manner. The problem is that Baldwin still feels like the movie set and not like a community. Celebration has achieved community feel, Baldwin hasn't. I think this is due a number of issues, including less variety amongst the building designs, too strict landscape code, and the amount of empty houses that are in Baldwin Park.
I walked up Canal Street and found that downtown was not filled with pies as I had imagined but instead was filled with exotic cars. The Exotic Car Festival was also going on while the Pie Fest was in the park next to it.
The cars were amazing. I loved how so many of them were the same colors and models, this repetition created an amazing wow factor when looking down the street at the cars.
The pie festival was actually much smaller than I expected but there were more pies than I have ever seen before. After 7 small slices I was more than filled and ready to take a nap. Though still April it felt like the middle of summer and after 7 slices of pie I was ready to find some AC. I walked back to my car from the festival and decided to take a nice drive around Kissimmee.
It had been a few years since I had seen downtown and I heard it was being remodeled. I drove down 192, looking at the countless shuttered shops, now boarded up and sitting empty. Some of my happiest memories are connected to many of those shops. It was here on 192, amongst the random elephant rides, seashell stores, no name motels, dinner shows that I had my first real encounters of life on my own. Sure the college I went to was super conservative and very strict but I still was able to venture out, try new things, and be an average 18 yr old.
Lately, as I transition into adulthood and transition my true self, I've given more thought than is probably healthy to my high school and college years. In those times I was much more angry, confused, and hurt. Its only recently that I've been able to get beyond the hurtful things that some people said or did during those years. I now realize the numerous opportunities I missed out on due to being in such a small town.
It feels like every day people around me reference things from high school that I've never heard of, never thought about, and didn't even know existed. I think that with the right support and the right clubs I could have been a much different person. It's just recently that I feel like I am on the right track for me.
Sometimes I think that my life had some type of pre-ordained plan and for all those years I was not focused on that plan, instead trying to do some many other things, not because I wanted to but because I didn't know what the plan was. I felt that my life wasn't quiet were it ought to be though, something just felt out of place. Now it doesn't, now it feels right. I still question if the path I'm on is headed in the correct direction but at least I now that in the moment it is correct.
During those formative years I did have so many amazing friends and it is with those friends that those great memories in now shuttered stores happened.
In downtown Kissimmee all but one of the places I used to go have closed. Its a much dirtier area now, but there is hope with the new buildings going up and remodeling of the park. I feel as though a part of old Florida is dying. The charm of old, half falling down buildings, the charm of silly neon gift shops is being lost. In its place is very nice things but things that are not unique or filled with charm.
I was reading a blog post about Heehaw Junction, a small outpost just off the Florida Turnpike. At it is a tiny old hotel and trading post that has been there for over 100 years now. I love these types of old places.
On Sunday I headed out to the west of Orlando to the Four Corners area. As a child for whatever my parents or school took many trips down Hwy 27, back then it was all orange groves and trading post gift shops. The other night I realized that all of that is gone. In its place are nice new clean shopping malls, housing developments, and much wider roads. I'm not one to say this isn't needed, I do love development after all, but I just wish Central Florida had the insight to keep its charm while it develops these areas. I was glad to Kissimmee celebrating its cowboy past in the new things it was putting into its downtown.
To have one thing you must give up something else. To have the cool new developments, the new attractions, and more urban lifestyle this region must give up many of previous attractions and lifestyle icons. Today the region boast many unique things, such as the Villages (another town that was nothing more than a few dozen old mobile homes when I was growing up), now we have a vibrant downtown, a great arts scene, festivals almost every weekend, and world class dining and shopping. But we've had to give up the rolling hills orange groves, the untouched swamp lands, and the silly gift shops that all seemed like clones of each other yet for whatever reason all had their own niche they played up.
I hope that more of Central Florida gets the community charm that Celebration has grown into. I have hope that this region is growing into something nicer than what it was when I was growing up here. I have hope that the kids now have more opportunities than I had. I just hope that the charm of the region isn't lost in the quest for development.
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