HUMOR (Sort of): It's Down to Wire ...
... you have just 18 hours to cast your vote(s) for Fredericksburg's Main Street as the Best in the South.
By Drew Gallagher
HUMORIST
After sharing a few tears of joy with the local institution that is Cedric Rucker at the University of Mary Washington watch party yesterday, where our alma mater had just won the first Men’s Basketball Championship in the history of the school, I went out into a crisp evening with some friends, still numb from the improbable finish.
Mark Hughes, an artist and a dreamer, directed my gaze skyward and pointed out an eagle taking wing on the Sunday night breeze over the Anderson Center. The moment was poetic, except the bird was a large crow and not an eagle.
The crow served as a reminder though that our work on behalf of our adopted hometown was not finished. Flags such as a National Championship banner do indeed fly forever, but there is another championship within our community’s grasp—Garden and Gun Magazine’s Best Main Street of the South competition is still open, and the ’Burg is in a pitched battle with DeLand, Florida, who I was told was rooting for Emory University against Mary Wash in the title game.
As a reminder, every vote counts and every person can vote once an hour from different devices. Here is the link: https://gardenandgun.com/bracket/vote-best-main-street/
The contest is open until midnight on Tuesday, April 7th and currently the margin separating these two small Southern towns is finer than Spanish Moss. (Truthfully, I don’t know how fine Spanish Moss is because every time I’ve tried to hit a 7-iron under or around it I have failed.)
Some readers might be tired of having to interrupt their games of Candy Crush to take a minute to vote on their phones, but I will point you to the resolve of our beloved Mayor of Fredericksburg, Kerry Devine. When the Mary Washington game went to halftime on Sunday, the Mayor (a fellow MWC alum) strode to midcourt of the watch party and gave a speech that would have rivalled Cicero, if it had been in Latin.
Mayor Devine stood upon the hallowed gym floor, the same floor that former Mary Washington basketball greats like Buddy Hawley, Steve Posey, and Fran Bonner never got to play on. The Mayor seemed to summon the ghost of the late, great Dr. James Farmer and roused the assembled masses to take out their phones and vote for Fredericksburg…as often as your multiple devices would allow.
Captivating the watch party audience at halftime was no easy feat since many of us are old and our backs ached and we were thirsty for the reasonably-priced adult beverages that were available. But the Mayor, undaunted, just like the Angel of Marye’s Heights, stood firm in her conviction that Fredericksburg has the best Main Street in all of the South and needed our help to beat DeLame, Florida. (Note to Editor: Some typos are best left unchecked.) She asked us, simply, to lay bare our hearts and vote for Caroline Street in Fredericksburg:
https://gardenandgun.com/bracket/vote-best-main-street/
Once upon a time, the punk rock legends the Ramones played mere steps from where the Mary Washington National Championship trophy will permanently reside. On that night, frontman Joey Ramone dominated the stage in the Great Hall just as guard Kye Robinson dominated the National Championship game for Mary Washington. But Fredericksburg history remains an open book with chapters to go and our destiny ticking down to mere hours as Joey once foretold in “I Wanna Be Sedated”:
20, 20, 24 hours to go
To Vote in the Garden and Gun Magazine Contest (links above)
I wanna be sedated
Nothing to do, nowhere to go
But to Vote in the Garden and Gun Magazine Contest (links above)
I wanna be sedated
Just get me to the airport, put me on a plane
Hurry, hurry, hurry before I go insane
I can’t control my fingers, I can’t control my brain
Except to Vote in the Garden and Gun Magazine Contest (links above)
Oh, no, oh-oh, oh-oh
History has its eyes on us.
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