Skip to main content

Serb Fest - Part 1


On a crisp Fall Sunday in Clearwater,  a little bored and feeling the need to experience something, I drove over to St. George's Serbian Orthodox church.  Having lived a while a few blocks away at Bedlam I was aware of a festival they had every year.  Once there it was as different as I had hoped.   



This is the St. George Serbian Orthodox church.  It may look old but was actually built in 2005.  



I don't know a thing about Serbian dance but this was fairly obvious.  A guy flirts with a girl then extends to her a red scarf or rope and lasso's her to him.  Apparently unto marriage.  It is a universal tale of happiness or woe, depending on your general outlook.  





Most of the dances I saw were basically the same.  Same tempo, same one-guy several-girls and more hopping than dance, in my estimation.  Of course, I'm an old box step guy so any more nuanced moves are lost on me. 






Cute kids mimicking what is happening up on the stage.  



Next group waiting on the sidelines for their performance.




These guys were also cooling their heels, waiting for their turn in the spotlight.






There were brisk sales at the drink tent.  I'll brush up on my Serb so I can order a beer in the Mother tongue.  




The afternoon sun beat down on the audience.  While I was there the sun was very much in the wrong place in order to watch the show.  Wonder why they didn't move the stage around to avoid this?



A couple kids exchanging secrets.  




A rather haunting tune from a fine singer.  If this song wasn't about lost love then there is no justice in the Serbian songbook.





A panel in the door going into the church.  In the next few days I'll post the second part of my visit to a Serbian Festival and the focus will be inside the church.  It's pretty interesting, so stay tuned.  

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Flashback Friday

Class, Or Lack Thereof The Dwight Vice gravestone in Oquawka, Illinois. I bring this old chestnut out every so often just to remind me that class is classless.  Dwight Vice was killed in his home near Oquawka in 2001.  It was one of those things that can generate crime:  two guys thought Dwight had a lot of money stashed at home because of his pot-selling sideline to supplement his fishing job.   Not really one of those big drug deals gone-bad things.  Marijuana was, according to the trial, about the only stuff Dwight sold.   But these two guys barge into the house and killed Dwight and attempted to kill his 11 year old kid, Darryl, before they took off with what money they could find.   His son, now 23, was stabbed in the back and left for dead.  He survived and is wheelchair bound and has undergone several surgeries to repair his wounds.  He will be paralyzed for life.   None of this is pleasant.  Reading the f...
Post a Comment
Read more

Philippe Park and The Tocobaga Indian Mound

About ten miles or so north of Bedlam is a place called Safety Harbor.  Its the place that has the 300-500 year old oak that the city tried to kill I featured a couple weeks ago on BFE .  They have a pretty nice park that has some interesting history, too.  Count  Philippe landed here and introduced the pineapple and cigar making to the Tampa Bay area. Today, however, I want to mention something else about this area, besides the really nice scenery.  Phillipe Park was also the home of the Tocobaga Indians.  The Tocobaga occupied the Tampa Bay area from around 600 A.D. to the 1600's.   This is a fairly common view of old stately moss-laden oaks down here.   This shot was taken atop the only Tocobaga Indian mound in the area.  This exact spot is home not only to the Tocobaga until they died out, but then to Count Phillipi who settled the area after the Tocobaga died out.   The place is full of oak and ...
Post a Comment
Read more

The Mary Davis Home - Part 2

None of these pictures were taken by me,  they came right from the MDH website.  I am posting these so that friends who have never seen inside where I worked can gain access.  After 27 years I have many stories, tales and acquaintances.  But, I wouldn't know how to express them appropriately in a few paragraphs.  I enjoyed 98% of my stay there and hope I made a difference in the lives of a fraction of the kids who entered.  The original MDH at this site was just the front part.  The large red-roofed area in back was added on in the 90's. This is the Jerry Carlton library.  It was unofficially named after one of the counselors who truly loved the place.   He passed away around 2002, I think.  Mr. Farber looks like he is explaining a few things to a client. The classroom. Activity area with the gym behind the windows. Another shot of the classroom. It was a little different area to teach since we had 2 classes and 2 teachers i...
Post a Comment
Read more