No one goes to the movies anymore and for good reason. In a movie theater, you can’t hit Pause to get something to eat or go to the bathroom. If you fall asleep, there’s no rewind allowing you to watch what you missed, so you’re out the twenty bucks you spent on your ticket. Furthermore, it’s lots cheaper and more convenient to stream movies on your TV.
I do know purists who insist you can’t appreciate a movie unless it’s on the big screen and you are surrounded by other humans. Of course, some people have televisions the size of the big screen while others don’t mind watching a 3D IMAX film on their phones.
Parties? You weren’t popular in high school. Your college friends have either moved into a double-wide deep in the Oregon woods or are milking yaks in an ashram in Nepal. The ones who moved to Manhattan are now so snooty they don’t answer your emails. And your neighbors? They were popular in high school and college. Consequently, no one invites you to parties.
Going out to dinner used to be an option until your favorite restaurant started charging extra for using credit cards requiring you to stop at the ATM for cash before eating. Furthermore, they now automatically add a 37% tip to your check.
So no movies, no parties, and no dining out. What does a Hopewellian do for entertainment?
Fortunately, the neighborhood offers many opportunities for a good time.
For music lovers (or haters), October’s Porchfest leads you to wander around the Borough and enjoy local musicians performing on, of all places, local porches. Nothing is as heart-warming as a crowd swaying on the sidewalk to a Creedence Clearwater cover of “Have You Ever Seen the Rain.” That crowd ranges from little kids, to gray-hairs, the latter singing along exuberantly. They know the words. That does raise the question: When does one age out of rock and roll? Guess the answer is never. Keep in mind, Mick Jagger is 81 and Paul McCartney, 82.
Late September brings Hopewell’s Tour Des Arts. The “Freight Shed,” that seemingly forgotten building next to the train station, is suddenly full of oil paintings. Artists and their works can also be visited in local restaurants and studios, and the artists are eager to chat. This year, Calvary Baptist Church had a blacklight room with artwork glowing in iridescent purple.
One question: why were there so many paintings of chickens?
Town fairs! In May it’s Pennington Day. Suddenly, half the town is occupied by food trucks, musical acts and booths touting local organizations. While most are quite conventional and wholesome (Scouts, church groups, conservationists), an anomaly this year was the cannabis table. As I walked past, the man tending the table wanted to know if I had any questions. What should I ask? How do you roll a joint? How do you use a bong? Where can I score, man?
The Hopewell Harvest Fair this September featured not only civic groups, but also some aggressive vendors. One woman was selling knives that would not need sharpening for seven years. She tried hard to extract my contact information so she could continue her hard sell. Another vendor offered upholstered tissue box covers shaped like couches. When I told her that I usually used my sleeve rather than tissues, she said that she could tell.
In May, Hopewell Borough has Cruise Night with mostly classy cars lined up on Broad Street. This year there were far too many Corvettes. Last year, I saw a Duesenberg! They haven’t been manufactured since 1937.
For additional entertainment options, consider Town Council meetings. They might seem tedious, but you should have been to the Borough meeting in September regarding the conversion of the abandoned eyesore at 57 Hamilton Avenue into 130 rental apartments.
The proposal drew a full house of smart, articulate neighbors talking about the impact on traffic, on local businesses, on school capacity, as well as potential flooding and contaminant clean-up. Sorely missed was the acrimony I recall from Hopewell Board of Education meetings back in the early 1990s. Now that was entertainment.
Don’t forget activities at local libraries. The County Library offers mahjong, canasta, cribbage, a book club, and paper rangoli lessons.
The Pennington Public offers literature and art lectures. In keeping with the impending season there are classes in making wreaths and greeting cards.
The Hopewell Public sponsors lectures, a knitting club, a book club, art classes, yoga, and board game competitions.
Want your entertainment outdoors? Visit Seward Johnson’s enormous sculpture “The Awakening.” That giant will apparently be rising indefinitely out of the ground in St. Michael’s Preserve. Do what I do. Tell him to get up already.
Or you could just go back to staring at your phone.
“The Awakening” sculpture by Seward Johnson on display at St. Michaels Preserve. (Photo by Robin Schore.),
