As an antique bard once said, “sumer is icumen in.” In fact, it’s been here for a while, well ahead of the official calendar date. And summer means outdoor festivals of various kinds, many of them politically oriented.
The most recent one, hosted by well-known political figure Sidney Chism, was held on Saturday on the same picnic grounds on Horn Lake Road where this annual event has always been held in recent years — except for 2020 and 2021, when concerns about the Covid pandemic intervened.
Chism, accompanied by his grandson — named Sidney, what else? — traversed the grounds in an open-air motor vehicle, keeping an eye on the politicians on hand and the activities at various booths and recreation sites for children.
The politicians and other public figures were invited to make brief remarks from an event stage. One of the first was Memphis Police Department director Cerelyn “C.J.” Davis, who advised attendees to get the free hot dogs that were partly burnt and gave a “shout-out to the Sheriff’s Department, though we have bonuses and they don’t.”
On the previous weekend, another stout assemblage of political types attended the annual crawsfih boil, sponsored by judicial candidate David Pool on ancestral Pool St. in North Memphis.
