FiftyPlus Richmond -Time of my Life

The Time of My life Randy Fitzgerald

Places to Go, Things to Eat

Can You Recommend a Good Food Festival?

Barb and I were “day trippers” long before the Beatles sang the song—although, come to think of it, the Mop Tops (are you old enough to remember that appellation?) might have been talking about a different kind of trip.

Our trips, dating back to 1961 when we were students, very poor and first married, consisted of adventurous outings such as a drive to Louisa to spend a few hours strolling and browsing around the town square on a sunny day and enjoying a cheap lunch at an old-fashioned soda fountain.

Many times we trekked to Williamsburg just to sit for a while on a bench on Duke of Gloucester Street and watch the tourists, eventually ending up with a hot molasses cookie or two.

Gas was 31 cents a gallon in the early and mid-sixties, so a little drive was more affordable then than now. But I do have in my head a memory from later that decade of Barb driving past a service station and indignantly vowing, “I will NEVER pay 40 cents a gallon for gas!”

We moved away for many years, but when we came back to Richmond in the 1980s, we had real jobs with more money, but by then we had children and less time to jaunt around. Our day trips then generally were designed to please the young ones—more Busch Gardens than Colonial Williamsburg.

We still loved day-tripping, but in those years we’d round up siblings and cousins and all head off as a group for Fredericksburg or Washington, D.C., where the children entertained themselves and the adults entertained each other.

Now as empty nesters, the day trip world is our oyster—actually, a festival of oysters, thanks to the joys of living in a coastal state. We’ve always loved the food festivals, especially the seafood opportunities: The Urbanna Oyster Festival (Nov. 7 & 8 this year), the Chincoteague Oyster Festival (Oct. 11), Neptune Festival in Virginia Beach (Sept. 26), Yorktown Seafood Festival (July 13), and Harborfest in Norfolk (June 6).

And that’s not even all of them. Sadly, our heart diets have cut back on fried foods and also ended day trips to Smithfield for ham biscuits and Suffolk for fresh peanuts.

OK, clearly our day trips have been food-oriented—but not all of them. We love the boardwalk art show at Virginia Beach—get ready, it’s June 12–15 this year.

Randy Fitzgerald is chair of the English and journalism department at Virginia Union University. He is a former Richmond Times-Dispatch columnist and University of Richmond administrator. His blog is www.randyfitzgerald.blog.com.

Archives: