Some unknown sage said this: "If my mind can conceive it and my heart can believe it, I know I can achieve it." 

         Whoever said this could well have been thinking of the annual Art, Heart & Stroll Festival on April 24 in Historic Old Mandeville sponsored by the Old Mandeville Business Association. 

         There will be plenty of fun and enlightenment for the inquiring mind to conceive on that day with some of our area's best artists displaying their talent in front of businesses along Girod Street. Not only can the senses be exalted by this beautiful art, but much of it can be purchased by discriminating visitors and taken home. 

         There is more: at 4 pm those with believing hearts will be competing for honors and prizes when a 4-mile run starts at Varsity Sports on Claiborne Street and winds through Historic Old Mandeville ending up back at Varsity for the awarding of prizes and gifts to all participants. 

         Ryan Green, managing partner of Varsity, is in charge of the race and there is still time to register to run in it by dropping by the exciting sporting goods store in the heart of Historic Old Mandeville. But runners beware: the pre-registration at a $20 fee ends on April 16th and that fee includes a commemorative champagne flute for the last event of the day. 

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           Spring will be sprung in radiant color on April 24 and there is no better way to spend a blooming enticing Saturday that the annual Heart, Art & Stroll Festival sponsored by the Old Mandeville Business Association. 

          There is something for everyone, young and old, in this old Mandeville spring ritual: competitive running, a more leisurely champagne stroll and scores of regional artists displaying their creativity in front of businesses along Girod and Lafitte streets. 

         The always exciting competitive run — a 4-mile jaunt through a large sector of Old Mandeville — will begin at 4 pm at Varsity Sports, 2021 Claiborne St. and end there. 

          At 5:30 pm those who want to set a bit slower place will line up and leave for the champagne stroll at Maxien's Coffee House at the south end of Girod Street and end at Good Earth Market & Cafe at the north end of Girod Street. 

          Meanwhile, throughout the day several acclaimed artists in the region will...

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       Unless you have been on a long trip to the moon or Mars, it is unlikely that you are not aware of the special Mandeville election coming up on March 27 to fill the two years remaining in the term of ex-Mayor Eddie Price, who resigned and is facing prison on assorted federal charges. 

       It is not hyperbole to suggest that in light of the city government tumult over the past couple of years with seemingly endless mayoral and police chief scandals rocking our city to its core, that this is one of the most crucial elections in modern times in this storied, historic city that was chartered by the state of Louisiana in 1840. 

       Your Old Mandeville Business Association holds steadfastly to the time-honored concept that informed citizens make intelligent voters and good government is the byproduct at every level. 

         So, because of the importance of this special election, your OMBA will sponsor a candidate forum from 7-9 pm on Thursday, March 4, at the St. Tammany Parish school...

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               As a dreary, rainy dawn broke on wet and desolate Girod Street around 6 am on Dec. 12, about the only thing stirring were a couple of soaking wet Old Mandeville Business Association volunteers scanning the empty street for some sign of arts, crafts or food vendors.  

            And like a low growling dog, echoes of the phrase "bah humbug" and others perhaps not printable rumbled in the unrelenting rain cloud sodden morning. 

               It was increasingly clear as the dismal morning displayed itself that your OMBA-sponsored Christmas Past Festival No. 6 simply was not to be. Against the reality of falling rain, null and void prospects of the day producing any significant number of street strolling shoppers, with many vendors simply not showing up at all and with more rain on the way, Christmas Past Festival chairman Richard Boyd made the difficult decision to call it off. Later in the day, the City of Mandeville, for the same reasons, canceled its lakefront “Winter on the Water”...

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   "Bah Humbug! Pay the rent."

   A little bit louder now.

   "BAH Humbug! Pay the rent."

   A little bit louder now.

   "BAH HUMBUG! Pay the rent."

   A little bit louder now.

   "BAH HUMBUG! PAY THE RENT." 

         Now you’ve got it.  The  Isley Brothers had it: shout it out! Only this time you can be shouting the famous line uttered by Ebeneezer Scrooge, and if loud enough, walk away with a $50 first price in the Scrooge Shouting Contest.  This event is part of the 6th Christmas Past Festival in Old Mandeville on Dec. 12 sponsored by the Old Mandeville Business Association. 

            Be loud and proud. Here is a contest that encourages you to be heard above the others by bellowing the phrase, "bah humbug. Pay the rent."  Before purists point it out we have indeed embellished the most famous line attributed to Scrooge in Charles Dickens' classic "A Christmas Carol."  Scrooge only says "bah humbug" twice and never adds to it, "pay the rent." But in...

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       Seeing the truck and the work crew busily installing the temporary light poles a few days ago in the vacant lot on the northeast side of U.S. 190 at the Girod Street intersection could mean only one thing:  Jim is getting ready for his always popular, Jim's Trees Christmas tree operation.

        That visible reminder provides a good segue into another important reminder: Christmas Past sponsored by your Old Mandeville Business Association  is a lot closer with its sixth edition that you might think.   It, of course, will take place on Girod Street from 9 am to 4 pm on Saturday, December 12th. The street will be lined on the west side from near the Mandeville Trailhead Cultural Interpretive Center to  Lakeshore Drive with dozens of area artists and craftspeople offering a huge array of handmade and seasonal gift choices.

       The always cooperative Mandeville Police Department will close the street and all the intersecting streets at 8:45 am and until 4 pm, Girod Street will become a pedestrian...

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       The inspirational Mother Teresa, who died in 1988, left us all with many challenges as human beings who interact in a sometimes confusing world with other human beings.

          One thing she said will likely resonate for generations to come: "You must come to know the poor."

        Of course those seven powerful words spoken by a remarkable woman who spent a lifetime tending to the poor challenge many of us even now. Virtue tells us we should know the poor; pragmatism questions how.

        For six years, the Old Mandeville Business Association has provided one unique outlet by which caring citizens can experience the superb culinary artistry of our splendid Old Mandeville restaurants, while at the same time providing for help for an organization that helps the poor.  And, at the end of the evening, the participant can go home with a treasured potter's wheel bowl.

        It is the Empty Bowl Project and the seventh edition will unfold from 5:00 p.m. -7:30 p.m. on November 8th at the Mandeville Trailhead Cultural Interpretive Center.

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Yes, it is always sunny in Old Mandeville even on the cloudy and stormy days. The sunshine we speak of flows from the hearts of the good people of this charmed city who find the energy to do good work to benefit others.

Ok, we concede that, well, just maybe … it’s always sunny in Philadelphia, too, as the creators of the Danny DiVito-driven cable comedy series claim.

 

But we are focused now, not on Philly, but our beloved Old Mandeville. Here and now, we are announcing a change in the date of an important fall event in Old Mandeville.

 

In this space in June I informed you that the second Sunny Days run to raise money for a chosen child in our midst with serious health issues would unfold in Old Mandeville on Oct. 17.

 

Well, we have no doubt that Oct. 17 will be another joyful sunny day in Old Mandeville, but this very important running event for such a good cause will now take place a week later, on what will be we are positive Oct. 24, and coincide with the OMBA-coordinated Fall Foliage sales event that has also been shifted from Oct. 17 to Oct. 24.

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Don the top hats and tails, swish through the streets in long flowing high-necked Victorian dresses and let the children cavort excitedly with visions of sugar plums in their anticipating eyes.

 

Mix and mingle and purchase superb items from the vast array of vendors along the way, join in singing the traditional carols as costumed revelers stroll along the route, sip a bit of hot cider at various locations and while Charles Dickens might not have put it this way, we will: Pass A Good Time!

 

This is all to say that your Old Mandeville Business Association is already deep into planning the annual Christmas Past Festival in homage to the English Victorian era of Dickens, one of the great writers of all time and perhaps best know for his classic, A Christmas Carol.

 

This year Christmas Past will be from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Dec. 13, mainly focused on Girod and Lafitte streets in the heart of the commercial center of Old Mandeville.

 

Your OMBA workers...

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It is beginning to look a lot like Christmas!

  

Well, actually not quite yet, but the jingle jangle of the tinsel town season is not so far away. Indeed, how about near the end of July.

 

To be exact, July 25 is the Saturday picked for the second Christmas In July sales promotion among the many exciting merchants of Old Mandeville. This year your Old Mandeville Business Association is helping coordinate the event.  They will publicize it in the area news media and help organize a poinsettia stroll as part of the day-long festivities.

 

July actually is not too early to begin seasonal shopping and it is that concept that led to the first Christmas In July last year. in  Several merchants are offering early chances to stock up on seasonal items and avoid much of the traditional December shopping frenzy. Kerri Blache, co-owner with her husband, Michael, of Vianne's Tea Salon & Cafe on Girod Street, came up with the original idea.

  

This year your OMBA will take a more active role and we will be bringing a new activity to the event: the stroll. Our OMBA-sponsored champagne stroll was such a smash success at the conclusion of the Art Hear & Soul Festival in March, that your OMBA is responding to a deluge of requests from participants for a repeat as soon as possible.

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 Just about anywhere one looked in the heart of Old Mandeville on April 4 there was a blur of the energy of activity and the eternal sunshine of laughter created by our hugely successful Art, Heart & Soul Festival.