free hugs, angry birds & langhorne slim

A photo with Shoeless Joe. Because it's never too early to start warning your kids about the dangers of hanging with the wrong crowd.

The last two days of Fall Break ended up with time spent at Fall for Greenville. The kids are all about some festivals these days and Greenville is always nice. There were rides....

...and shameless ads aimed at children....

...and free hugs (apparently)....

...and there was Langhorne Slim.....for free.

Fall for Greenville is all about food and music. The food is cheap and the music is free. We met some friends at the stage for Langhorne's show and we walked up and seized a spot right in front of the stage. Ever the caring parents, we had our 5 year old and 2 year old in tow. Before you get uptight about that, just know that the music was not too loud and as a daytime all ages show, the language was pleasantly PG at the worst. And what kind of parents would we be if we let our kids grow up thinking that the radio was the only source of music, that that Bieber kid was worth hearing, or heaven forbid.....that they NOT know what the word Americana means?

So we sat down on East Washington street, right on the center line and waited for the band to tune up. I'm a realist (most days) so I understood that the only way our kids were going to sit still and relatively quiet for an hour or so was with some technology help. At the first sign of fidgeting I handed Blue my phone and he went to town on some Angry Birds. When the show started everyone was on their feet.....everyone except Blue. He sat in the street with crazy fans jumping all around him for the entire concert. He didn't look up but he did catch the beat a few times and start swaying to the music.

For the final tune Langhorne launched into a particular song he's known for singing while moving through the crowd. At the Handlebar last year he sat down with a fan in the seats near us and sang to her. At the Visulite a month or so ago he jumped off stage and walked right up between G and me. Sunday he climbed down off the stage, jumped the metal barrier and walked right over to where we were standing. He was singing away when he spotted Blue sitting on the ground playing games on the phone. Langhorne smiled and quickly sat down in front of Blue and began to sing directly to him. Blue was so into the games I had to tap him to get him to look up. He saw what was happening and this huge smile washed over his face. Then Langhorne got up and continued his stroll through the crowd. Since Blue had my phone I couldn't get a photo of the experience. But as a wise man once said, "We have it in our hearts".

This was just after he left Blue's perch. That's Ginger's hair on the left. I took the photo and Blue asked for the phone again so he could finish his game. He's a tough crowd.