Cauli Le Chat

Cauli Le Chat
Cauli Le Chat, MPL Feline Roving Reporter

Sunday, December 4, 2011

(Part Two) Mooresville's Victorian Christmas Celebration

We continue making the rounds with our Lithuanian VIP (very important person), "Flat" Dovydas Balčiūnas, at the Victorian Christmas Celebration in downtown Mooresville, Indiana.

Another highlight of the festivities was meeting Father Christmas outside of Biff's Pioneer House Bakery.  Both "Flat" Dovydas and "Flat" Cauli III posed for pictures.

We have BOTH been very good this year, Father Christmas

Anybody who doesn't believe in Santa Claus should watch the movie Miracle on 34th Street (1947). The Spirit of Christmas is alive and well. To paraphrase a line of dialogue from Kris Kringle in the movie, it's as real as the nose on your face.  We cats just know such things.

Just up the block (we're talking East Main Street here) outside the relatively new motorcycle dealership (in a building that once housed the local post office around a century ago) were sitting a couple of motorcycles.  I don't have a motorcycle operator license, so I can't drive one.  Still, "Flat" Cauli III can pretend.  "Flat" Dovydas, too, thought the bikes looked pretty cool.

"Flat" Dovydas & "Flat" Cauli look mighty cool
on that Harley-Davidson

The Lady With the Red Hair declined to sit on the motorcycle for a photo op.  That much coolness would be too tough to handle.

Skulls, but no cross-bones, says "Flat" Cauli III


While we were horsing around on the Harleys, the Martinsville (Indiana) Community Band played close to the Main Street/Indiana Street intersection, which is the heart of downtown Mooresville. (Indiana Street remained open for vehicular traffic, so the band had to compete with traffic noise.) Several favorite holiday tunes filled the air.  It was quite festive.  It was too dark under the tent in which they were playing, so my pictures of the band really didn't turn out very well.  The sign looks good, though.

The Lady With the Red Hair,
"Flat" Cauli III & "Flat" Dovydas
before the Victorian Christmas Tree
on the Founder's Stone

Most American school children learn the legend of Plymouth Rock, where the Mayflower Pilgrims purportedly disembarked from their ships to found the Plymouth Colony (in what became Massachusetts) in 1620. Mooresville has its own founder's rock on the Northeast corner of the Main Street/Indiana Street intersection downtown.  This was the location of the first wood-frame business building in Mooresville:  a general store owned and operated by Samuel Moore, who founded the town in 1824. The plaque on the rock commemorates the store's location, where it operated for much of the 19th century.

"Flat" Dovydas with Old-Fashioned Bicycles




I bet Hoosier-born world bicycle racing champion Marshall "Major" Taylor didn't race bikes like these back in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.  Incidentally, my Library has several excellent biographies about Taylor.  Of course, we have a book trailer.  Would you like to watch it?  Sure you do.


"Flat" Cauli III was mesmerized by a lanky fellow walking on stilts along East Main Street.  He juggled, too.  Amazing coordination there, and then some, I'd say.  Can you imagine Scowl-Face atop those things?  "Look out below!" is all I could say about that.

Shop much at the Tall Gentlemen's Shoppe?  Just asking

There were some cute wild critters close by the tall dude.  These included a burro, a goat, and some other small grazing herbivore--I forget now what species it was.

Cute Little Burro


We'll finish up our photos of Victorian Christmas in Part Three!


Still Stay Tuned,

Cauli Le Chat
MPL Roving Reporter
Holiday Celebrations News Beat


P.S.  Since we began this blog posting with Father Christmas, it seems only fitting that we should go full-circle and end there, too.  The Kinks performed "Father Christmas" (1977) in a rough-cut video montage.  The song pokes fun at Christmas commercialism.

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