Folk Groups: Funnel Cakes, Piano, and Santa Edition

Living in the town of Farmville, I guess it would be safe to consider all of the other inhabitants a part of my folk group; I'm apart of a regional folk group. Due to the local university the town is diverse [demographically], but everyone pretty much has the same goal: liberate themselves from forced conservative ways. The town is actually located in the center of VA and we all take pride in being the Heart of VA. The large 24-hour, 6-block festival is every first Saturday in May and concludes with fireworks at the local airport and is the most important thing to the town. The festival is so important, the council members and community starts planning for the next year the day after the festival is over. Whether it be vending, offering free parking, or performing, if you're a town native you will incorporate something. As for my family, every year my dad's band closes out the festival with a two hour show...other family members contribute one way or another, whether it be running the sound board or backing up a singer. Overall, it's all a great time, and for the town it means tourists, funnel cakes, culture exhibitions, pony rides, glow sticks, pop guns, and fireworks.

As far as my family folk group, my family has to be the most unconventional traditional family I know. By the age of three it will be determined whether you are a musician, singer, or both. I turned out to be both, but insist on being rebel without a cause and no longer embracing it. Now my singing, isn't as great as it used to be. The family eat, sleeps, and breathes music and you've probably been to every state to see a performance by the time you're seventeen.

In our family holidays and birthdays are extremely important but have a twist. Every birthday, you hear how you were conceived[or at least where] and the story of your birth. The birthday person wears a Santa hat or three birthday hats to try and look like a triceratops. The birthday meal will always include cake, ice cream, and crab legs. Entertainment ranges from a clown on a stripper pole to the elder members of the family singing karaoke songs about heartbreak or power ballads by Whitney Houston. That celebration in particular is a family only event and must be celebrated ON the person's birthday. If they want to celebrate with friends they must pick a day before or after. The day ends with all immediate family members playing a game[video or board].

During the Christmas holiday, Christmas music is played from whenever the first person wakes up to the time the last person goes to bed. Everyone wears a Santa hat...no matter what they're doing. My dad cooks the largest meal of lasagna, macaroni, garlic bread, sweet potato pie, dinner rolls, honey ham, country ham, turkey, and peas all from scratch. My mom makes rice pudding because it's the only think she can make... Everyone [friends and family] comes to our house to eat every day during the week of Christmas, playing video games and whatnot. My dad also cooks chitterlings just so we can smell them mixed in with the pine from the tree we chopped down and decorated because it's not Christmas in our house without the smell of chitterlings and pine... As far back as I can remember, my little sister and I have slept in the same bed on Christmas Eve...we have to. Last year we tried not to, but it didn't feel like Christmas so that didn't work out. We set out alarms to go off every hour after midnight so we can annoy ask our parents to let us come out to see if Santa arrived and ate his cookies and Jack Daniels. There are so many more traditions, but those are just a few of the important ones.