We are asked so often what there is to do in a small town in the summertime. My answer is always the same. There is a lot to do if you are willing to put yourself out there and let loose.
It might seem juvenile or silly to spend your day wading through one of our small brooks, or by the small waterfalls, but it will be the best thing for your blood pressure and recharge you for the stressors in your life.
Attend one of the local markets, go to the musical events, that all our neighboring towns hold, on different nights. They are free and if you aren’t a big fan of the music one night, try another night, they are always changing. Pack a dinner and a blanket and then just relax.
Climb Ragged Mountain or go for a walk on the rail trail, or in Rosemary’s Woods. While you are there, judiciously, collect wild flowers and herbs. Use them to make homemade salad dressings, lotions, soaps or just put them in a jar to look good.
When you pass someone haying stop and give a hand, I guarantee you will make friends and have a better workout than any gym will give you! Same goes for when you seen someone stacking wood, particularly our older neighbors, spend ten, fifteen minutes helping and they will talk about it for the next ten or fifteen days!
Take a bike ride, let the wind go through your hair and remember being younger. It can be a motorcycle, an e bike, a mountain bike or a street bike. You will giggle like a five year old learning how to ride and being independent for the first time.
You can take a stroll down old route 104 (Smith River Road), take your bug repellents and your dinner and enjoy the babble of the river. Another great spot is Profile Falls in neighboring Old Hill Village.
Grow a garden in preparation for sharing at the Danbury Grange Fair. Pick berries, make jam or shortcake. Eat watermelon and let yourself get sticky and don’t care, it will wash!
Eat S’mores sitting by a campfire. Sing, tell stories or just reminisce.
Play horseshoes, corn hole, pickle ball, tennis, waffle ball, baseball, basketball or frisbee. (Buy a frisbee, just start with that !)
Float on a river, swim in a lake, wade in a brook, sit in a creek, dive off a cliff (carefully).
Kayak on the Danbury Bog or Waukegan Lake, Fish in the Smith River or School Pond.
Visit the Historical Society this summer, you will be amazed at our rich history, in this small town, and all we have offered in the past and all that we still do. There is a lot to do, you just have to get out there and do it, regardless of the weather.
Summertime is short, let’s enjoy it in our small town!