JoeFest, A Cat Story, Part 2

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​JoeFest, A Cat Story, Part 2

 ...Continued from yesterday:      
     When my daughter Theresa  first told me several months ago about Joe the cat and JoeFest, a Clintonville community event she was helping organize to celebrate Joe, my first thought was...well, actually, I didn't have any first thought. My brain drew a blank. I was struck thoughtless.
        I mean, I couldn't wrap my cerebral cortex around the idea of a party in honor of...a cat? A cat that wanders around the neighborhood? Who would care? ​Who would come? To me this sounded pretty...unconventional. Even for Clintonville.

        But then, I obviously didn't know Clintonville as well as I thought I did. And I didn't know Wanderin Joe the Ravine Cat at all.

      However, I kept my misgivings to myself and told Theresa that, sure, I'd come to JoeFest, and certainly, I'd help in anyway she needed me.
       As the weeks went by, though, it seemed that what my daughter most needed from me was to be a silent listener upon whom she could bounce the committee's ideas and concerns. Where would they hold JoeFest? On a blocked-off neighborhood street? In a park? In a picnic shelter? Should it be pot luck? Food trucks? BYOFood? Should there be entertainment? Decorations? Games? Would there be costs? How would they finance it?
         But week by week JoeFest appeared to be coming together. The event was scheduled for  Saturday, July 25 from 4 - 8pm in one of the picnic areas at Clintonville's Whetstone Park of Roses (see previous post). Folks could bring a picnic if they wished. A band had offered to come and play for free. Some friends of friends would lend corn hole sets and giant Jenga blocks. And Theresa launched a Gofundme to cover expenses.
​           Still, the week before JoeFest was to happen Theresa was having some nerves. On Sunday, July 19, as she, her dad, and I drove for eight hours home from a family reunion on the East Coast, Theresa spent much of  the ride ruminating over the details.
         Prior to JoeFest there was a party scheduled to use the picnic area from 1 to 4pm. What if they weren't out with the area cleaned up by 4? How would she and the committee even have time to get set up before people started showing up for JoeFest?  What if nobody showed up for JoeFest? What if 500 people showed up and it got all crazy? And, worst of all, what if Joe's cat dad wasn't able to get Wanderin Joe to the park? What if there was no Joe at JoeFest? 
         Furthermore, local filmmakers Ian James Milheim and Justine Hope were working on a documentary about Joe the Cat and were intending to come to JoeFest for footage.     

       But what if JoeFest was a bust?
       Finally I counseled my daughter that sometimes in life you have to just do your best then wait and see how the thing plays out.
         As it turned out, a week later this particular thing played out more wonderfully than the JoeFest committee could have hoped.
       To be continued...