Family Friendly: A Visitor’s View of Thursday Night Live
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By Hannah Nyren

When I first arrived at Thursday Night Live in Cheapside Park, I felt like I had landed in an alternate universe. I’m from North Dallas, where the last place my friends would want to be seen would be within a 100-foot radius of their parents.
Yet here in the center of Lexington, I saw college students voluntarily attending the same event as their parents. I couldn’t believe my eyes!

The night grew stranger by the minute. What seemed to be a tribute band to Weird Al Yankovich (complete with a lookalike keyboard player) busted out unexpectedly conventional jazz music, while a lady in a wedding dress, three contortionist children with hula hoops, and everyone else in the crowd danced to the beat.

The scene was part circus, part zoo -- nearly every person at the park brought a pet. Although these pets mostly consisted of very large, very scary dogs, one man sported a parrot on his shoulder. But the monster dogs and pirates and Miss Havershams dancing around paled in comparison to my initial shock.

Mothers, fathers, teenagers, preschoolers, college students, grandparents, babies -- all present and accounted for. Never before had I seen parents and children and their friends laughing and smiling at each other, dancing and sharing popcorn.

I questioned the reality of this mind-boggling situation. I couldn’t believe that parents and children actually seemed to hang out together. Could this be such a Utopian Society?

Where I’m from, things like Thursday Night Live just don’t happen. People do things in their own separate age groups: parents with other parents, teenagers with other teenagers, and single working 30-somethings with other single working 30-somethings.

Even the groups of children usually play in clumps, with one unfortunate mother designated as chaperone.

I always hated this age-o-centric set-up, so the family-friendliness of Lexington appeals to me. This summer with my grandparents, aunt and uncle, and younger cousins has become my best vacation ever.

This, of course, warrants many more trips to Cheapside Park on Thursday nights.

Hannah Nyren
Lexington Family Magazine Intern