When I first moved to Danville and Boyle County, one of the things that attracted me here were all the events that were going on. Norton Centre for the Arts, for example, at Centre College, had some wonderful performances advertised. There were all sorts of attractions, from music to theatre to museums.
Today on my Facebook page I noted two upcoming events. One is $75 per person for a dinner celebrating the anniversary of a local organization. The other is for a distillery tour with samples for $50 per couple.
Another new distillery and restaurant just opened, and the meals seem to start at $25- $30 for extremely gourmet meals (which usually means ingredients you can't pronounce, and quantities that would fit on a postage stamp). We have had three restaurants in town close, one after another, owned by the same person, because there just weren't enough rich customers to keep them going. Each one was an upscale version of the previous one that went belly-up. When drinks and dinner for two is well over $100, one doesn't do that very often. And if one is ME, I don't do that AT ALL.
And those events at Centre? I've only attended two. One was free (the Air Force Band), and the other came courtesy of a student who didn't need her tickets, so that was free, too. When tickets are nearly 20% of my monthly pension check, I don't get to many performances.
Don't get me wrong. These are great for the top 20% who can afford to blow a couple of hundred on one evening, and do that several times a month, and then jet off to the Caribbean for a week. But what about the rest of us? I guess we're consigned to staying home and watching TV. Even going out to the movies would be a treat once in awhile!
The Great American Brass Band Festival is, for the most part, free, so we attend that. The Harrodsburg Beef Festival is $5 or maybe $7 so we attend that. The Soul of Second Street Festival (with which I am involved) is free. Some of the other street festivals in Danville are free, so we attend those, and maybe buy some food and a beer, at minimal cost. If it weren't for those, we'd probably never go anywhere except to medical appointments!
There are many activities at the library, but few of them are designed for my age group. And the Community Arts Center has many as well, but again, only the 20% can afford the cost.
When I'm invited somewhere, I usually turn it down -- it's embarrassing asking all the time, how much does it cost -- so people assume I'm either anti-social (I'm not) or dirt poor (sort of). And when someone says, it's only $50, that's our water bill for two months!
So, I guess that's the way it is. The upper classes have all the events, and the rest of us just stay home and create our own entertainment -- which we do! Research, writing, reading, I've never done as much in the past. I've read more books in the past 2 years than in the previous 20; I've even written more than ever before, and been published several times. And at times, I don't WANT to go out because that takes me away from my writing.
OK, enough here. Time to get back to organizing death records for African-Americans!
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