Jubilee Day 2011 dancin’ in the rain

It was a perfect morning 66°F (18.9°C) for an outing to Jubilee Day with summer heat sensitive Multiple Sclerosis.

Then it got challenging - arriving where we’ve always parked at Simpson Library, I was surprised to find wheelchair van designated and handicapped spaces occupied or obstructed by both a Cumberland County Library System vehicle and a contractor, Weaver’s Glass. There was a wide open curb adjacent to the entrance which neither able bodied driver “chose” to use.

While Patti enjoyed a ciggie, I “shared” my feelings with drivers.  

Then, back to fun – rolling the streets an hour before Jubilee Day ‘officially’ opens makes a big difference when your view is from a wheelchair - a forest of buttocks is no one’s idea of fun. Everything is ‘actually’ open anyway.

Plus there are no lines at yummy treats like pumpkin funnel cake. Patti’s parents (in right of picture) even joined us this magnificent morning.

Then the best laid plans of mice and men went astray as .8 inch (2.03 cm) of rain steadily fell over the next hour. No rain was forecasted so I had removed our rain gear from Patti’s wheelchair backpack to make room for shopping. J

While Patti and her parents enjoyed the sounds of Jazz Me under a tent, I walked back to our van. Now I have never met a puddle I don’t like. Give me an umbrella and well soon those splashes take on rhythm – “doo-dloo-doo-doo-doo-doo... I'm singin' and dancin' in the rain!”

Sheathing my umbrella and quelling my dancing feet I rain-proofed Patti in poncho and Buggy Bag® lap blanket, donned my own poncho and my happy feat pushed our rain proof selves onward.

To cap off our annual Jubilee Day outing we discovered our wheelchair van is also a perfect all-weather picnic gazebo for two, enjoying a lunch of pulled pork sandwiches with a medley of tempura vegetables (onion rings, mushrooms, zucchini, and cauliflower with ranch and horseradish dip).

Veni, vedi, vici and a doo-dloo-doo-doo …

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer 

web site: caregivinglyyours.com  

videos: www.youtube.com/daddyleer

Jubilee Day 2010 Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus

Footfalls echo in the memory, 

Down the passage which we did not take,

Towards the door we never opened

Into the rose-garden.

T. S. Eliot

Sharing a pumpkin funnel cake topped with cinnamon and sugar was the first stop of our visit to the 82^nd Annual Jubilee Day.

Continuing our formula for successful wheelchair outings of “arrive early and depart early” I was surprised at how busy the street was even before official beginning time. Dominated by strollers and wheelchairs, it was like some modern variation of the Riddle of the Sphinx. Hey, assistive technology traffic beats a forest of buttocks any day!

Cruising by a zillion vendors of things of interest and no interest a caricature booth caught our attention. Concluding this was something we had never done, we sat down with Neil McMillin freelance illustrator and graphic designer out of Lebanon, PA. 

Visiting the Keystone Smokehouse & BBQ truck was one of those Multiple Sclerosis or Patti or both moments. Preparing Patti’s pulled pork bbq sandwich the clerk simply asked if Patti would like a little coleslaw, unaware that Patti can get down right evangelistic in her contempt for coleslaw. Few people have such passion about coleslaw or share with such a profanity laced epiphany.  

What is Jubilee Day for Patti without ‘bling’ shopping? Besides the ideal wheelchair height of street vendor displays, vendors are often shop owners or artists themselves. Interaction in shopping is a treat and a half.

Here Patti strikes poses as she models her Jubilee Day ‘bling’, a necklace and earring set from Head to Toe Boutique of Annville, PA

Finally, sipping down frozen lemonades we happily rolled on out as the crowds began to build and temperatures began to climb. 

Easy? No! Outings never are. Yet in the end, Venimus, Vidimus, Vicimus!

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer

web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/ 

videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer 

musings: patrick ponders 

Jubilee Day is accessible, butt ...

Best thing about a street fair is a street. Streets are made for rollin’. Worst thing about a street fair is crowds. Who wants to spend a wheelchair outing rolling through a forest of buttocks?

We always look forward to Jubilee Day in Mechanicsburg, PA annually the third Thursday in June. With a little pragmatic adaptation we also always enjoy ourselves.

Billed as the largest one day street fair in the Eastern United States, somehow 60,000 visitors fit into the .6 mile of Main Street Mechanicsburg.  

We adapt to both crowds and heat (Patti is also challenged by Multiple Sclerosis intolerance of heat) by simply arriving early and departing early, works for us year after year.

Jubilee Day officially begins at 10 AM. Arriving even earlier we have always found everything open. In the cooler crowd-free summer morning it really is a treat to roll down Main Street.  Lemonade under a shade tree and you can almost feel the past in those lazy, hazy, crazy days of summer.

Unique to street fairs is vendor shopping. Unlike department stores or mall stores where counters are designed for standing people, street fair vendors sell from folding tables. For Patti shopping in a wheelchair this could not be more interactive and ideal.

Then there is the food, blocks of food. We do have to factor in Patti’s challenges to hold and eat food along with risk of MS related dysphagia from distractions with all the hoopla. Again here we adapt by simply bringing along utensils and a plate in her wheelchair backpack, creating options. 

Two stages of entertainment open at 10 AM.

Accessible parking is available in the municipal parking lot on West Strawberry Alley and accessible public portable restrooms are available every couple blocks.

By lunchtime the crowds are seriously starting to build and the cooler morning is replaced by summer heat and humidity … that is our cue to say good-bye.

Knowing not only challenges but limitations is a key to a successful and enjoyable outing.

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer

web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/ 

videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer 

musings: patrick ponders 

Jubilee Day 2009 / Multiple Sclerosis

After 60+ nights of cluster headaches I personally felt more like a mole in a whack a mole game, but Thursday was Jubilee Day, the largest one-day street fair in the eastern United States.

Living with MS and pushing a wheelchair through this human slalom in summer sun, heat, and humidity must by default be some kind of greatest one day MS challenge in the eastern United States, or something like that. Whatever … Patti looks forward to it and come hell or high water we go for it.

Sometimes a story is best told through the random strangers you not only encounter but who care.

While helping Patti with her lunch and related MS symptoms of dsyphagia, a security guard wandered over and asked if he could join us. NO ONE ever anywhere asks to join us. Turns out he also helps to care for a man with Multiple Sclerosis.

Street fairs are not only optimum for the logistics of shopping from a wheel chair but for the human interaction with artists.

Following lunch we were enjoying harpist Shawn Ruby at the Community Stage on East Main. Bringing her harp down off the stage, she offered to let people try playing it. I rolled Patti up to take a whack at it. Shawn could not have been nicer working to position the harp for Patti’s wheelchair and ‘helping/joining’ Patti because of her MS visual and physical symptoms to strum away.

Patti’s new necklace was purchased from Harmony in Design. They create ‘born again’ art from antique silver forks and spoons. Meeting and visiting with Jim and Lisa Harmon was a treat. Not only did they give Patti respect and the additional time her MS symptoms require to try and ‘see’ and ‘choose’ jewelry, their Samoyed, “Glacier”, is ‘in training’ to be a service dog and became a fast buddy to Patti.

The picture of Patti was taken three hours into what should have been wilting conditions for MS. Her smile says it all. Caring people can often trump nature and make challenges worth trying.

Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer
musings: Patrick Ponders ...

roaming the streets in a wheelchair / JUBILEE DAY

Baked by a couple 90°F+ (32.2 °C+) summer days in April, we found ourselves thinking ahead to Jubilee Day.

Unlike the “Roaring 20’s” of the Great Gatsby here in South Central Pennsylvania the Mechanicsburg Borough Council decided to create an affair held during the June lull in farmer’s work that local residents “would not forget.” Blocking off several blocks of Main Street for Merchants and Farmers Day they let visitors “roam the streets”.

They stumbled onto one of the more wheelchair accessible events possible, pedestrian only streets.

Today known as “Jubilee Day”, that first ‘roaming of the streets’ has grown to 60,000 visitors and the largest one-day street fair in the Eastern United States.

For perspective keep in mind that Mechanicsburg has a population of less than 9,000.

Neither the armies of the Confederacy nor Hollywood have rivaled Jubilee Day crowds.

* During the US Civil War, Mechanicsburg was the northernmost town to be captured and occupied by the Confederate Army.
* If you watched the film, “Girl Interrupted” you have unbeknownst already visited Mechanicsburg. The ice cream parlor scene was filmed in Eckels' Drug Store on Main Street.

Packed into the less than a mile of blocked streets, tens of thousands of people do not exactly ‘roam’. A wheelchair may as well be swallowed by a boa constrictor of human beings.

Obstacles tend to challenge us more than deter us and we soon discovered early morning of Jubilee Day. The hour before “official” starting time, summer temps are Multiple Sclerosis friendly, refreshingly cool and streets are less congested for wheelchair maneuvering. Most vendors are open and glad to give you their time.

One of the quirks of a street fair is that shopping is wheelchair accessible since it is set up on folding tables unlike a retail store where shopping is designed for standing people. Patti loves being able to actually see and touch items and chat in the give and take of street fair sales.

In its 81st year, Jubilee Day is on-line at Jubilee Day 2009, and can be ‘your friend’ on Facebook at Jubilee Day and Gotta Love Jubilee Day.


You can view OUR related videos at:
Jubilee Day 2007 (1 min)
Jubilee Day 2008 (wheelchair view) 3 min


Caregivingly Yours, Patrick Leer
web site: http://caregivinglyyours.com/
videos: http://www.youtube.com/daddyleer
musings: Patrick Ponders ...