By Bob Tagert

      Nice weather has finally arrived and the heat of summer is becoming a memory. As fall creeps in the time for outdoor events and festivals are in the air. In addition to the 14^th Annual King Street Arts Festival and Art on the Avenue (Oct. 1^st) that are happening here in Alexandria, the Plein Air Festival is this month in Solomons, Maryland and the 50^th Annual Oyster Festival will be in October in St. Mary’s County, Maryland. Read about these two festivals in this issue. There is also the Rappahannock Farm Festival in the foothills of the Blue Ridge. If you go, make a point to stop by Tula’s in Little Washington for a libation and a bite to eat.

For the last three months we have asked for opinions regarding the study about the removal of Appomattox, the Confederate Statue at Washington and Prince Streets. Read Doug Coleman’s analysis and excerpts from the comments. All of the responses will be on our online version at oldtowncrier.com. Since we first began solicitation for the opinions whether to keep the statue or concede to its removal, the committee appointed by the city has ruled that Appomattox should stay.

Lori Welch Brown reflects on why we should all step back and take some time to look around us and spend quality time with those who are close to us in her Open Space column and Farmer D gives us the low down on keeping cacti alive in Urban Garden. This is just a peek at this months’ content.

Unlike Facebook, I do promise you that when you read this publication and turn the page I guarantee that the page will not go blank and reboot and that there will be no pop-up ads to cover the print. Just good reading folks…and the places advertised are well worth the interest. Just saying.

Some of you may have noticed that we don’t have any mention of the 15^th anniversary of 9/11 in the issue. We discussed this at length and decided that all that would serve to do would be to give continued attention to the terrorists that committed the crime. We will remember all of those lost in the tragedy as well as all of those who were part of the rescue. We hope you all honor them in your own way as well.

Let’s celebrate the last summer hoorah on Labor Day and then bring on the cooler weather and the changing leaves! Also, drive safe everybody…..remember that school is in session.