A Celebration 275 Years in the Making

Bring on the birthday cake. Orange County is celebrating its 275th anniversary this year, and the people are ready to party. How do you throw a birthday bash for an historic county? Well, a jazz quartet, a beverage trailer, and a giant sheet cake are all a good start.

As you cross the railroad tracks that run perpendicular to Main Street, the first strains of choral music reach your ears. The melodious sound emanates from a female a cappella group, standing atop a makeshift stage that has been set up adjacent to the town’s historic train station. The buttercup yellow, clapboard building is host to this evening’s festivities – including food, music, and fireworks – all of which have been planned in honor of Orange’s 2 ¾ centuries of being. As the young singers complete their opening act, which is a global music tribute ending with a Korean ode, four middle-aged men prepare to take to the platform erected in front of the old train tracks. Together, these casually-clad musicians comprise the Blues Farm Band, a local favorite and the star of tonight’s celebration.

A drummer, a bassist, a guitarist, and a vocalist: the musical talents of the Blues Farm Band musicians are simple, but when their sounds combine, the soulful effect is rapturous. Sporting plain, but crisp, clothing, the musicians exude a highly attractive aura of “cool.” Two of the men wear neutral-colored, collared shirts with the top three buttons left conspicuously undone; one sports a plaid flannel top; and the last is clad in a simple gray tee-shirt. All don their worn-in blue jeans with pride. Their down-home demeanor is soothing and somehow highly credible, as if the men seek to embody the soulful principles of blues music that they proclaim so proudly in their song.

As the lead singer of Blues Farm Band runs his lips over his stainless steel harmonica, a calm falls upon the early bird crowd assembled in a quaint side street abutting the still-active railway tracks in town. Patrons flock to the food and beverage stands set up throughout the train station parking lot, and a crowd forms as the hungry celebrants try to decide what their cravings dictate for the evening. Caribbean, Southern-style, and organic food – the latter from a newly minted restaurant in town called “Real Food” – are all available for purchase; a unique mishmash of tastes but apparently a crowd-pleasing selection. To wash down the fried plantains, pork BBQ, or black bean turnover on their plates, many celebrants stop by the beer trailer – a converted RV turned mini bar – where four types of frothy beverages are available straight from the tap.

Sated with food and enlivened by the music, many celebrants at the festival wander throughout the grounds of the event, soaking up the last gentle rays of an early October sun. In the center of a lush little park, young couples recline upon blankets spread across the still verdant lawn. The modern fountain in the center of the play area proves irresistible to the younger children at the event, several of whom delight in traipsing through the water jets that spurt from several small ducts onto a flat, marble surface. Inside the old train station itself, more treats for the mind and mouth await. Walk the width of the one-room building and admire photos that encapsulate the history of the century-old station - built in 1909, serving as an active train depot until the early 1970s, and currently home to the Orange County Department of Tourism and Visitors Bureau.

In the center of the room, a minutely detailed model of the train station rests atop a small wooden platform; the display includes miniature dolls seated astride a bench, which is actually set up beside the jet black railway tracks outside, and an old-fashioned coal caboose, apparently just pulled into the station. Though the impressive display is normally the most popular exhibit in the room, on this particular evening, a crowd has assembled at a different point in the building. At the far end of the station, two beaming volunteers serve generous slices of yellow cake, topped with festive orange and blue icing in honor of the town’s chosen colors, to a line of event-goers that stretches nearly across the room.

A treat of a different sort lies ready to draw spectators back to the deliciously cool outdoors: the brilliant orange and fuchsia sunset that lights up the evening sky as the County’s celebration swings into full gear. As darkness envelops the spectators, all in a state of merriment from engaging in joyful chatter with one another or subdued toe-tapping in accompaniment to the Blues Farm Band, the first fireworks of the night explode in the heavens, bathing the small town in a wave of brilliant light. Here’s to Orange’s first 275 years, clearly just the start of something great.