Sometimes it's fun to think about how things have changed over the years.

Take summer activities for example. This thought process came about Wednesday night when our family went to the Mermaid Festival in North Webster.

Shortly after we arrived, the kids, with a couple friends in tow, headed off on their own. So Mary and I sat and watched the parade.

We ran across some friends, chatted, and then we headed down to the festival grounds to catch up with the kids.

On the way, we were lured into the Methodist church's booth, where they were serving up strawberry pie and shortcake.

As we sat there under the tent clogging our arteries with strawberry pie, whipped cream and ice cream, I looked around.

There was a line of people waiting to buy pie. There were all types of people sitting around eating - older couples, young families, a few teens.

Dozens of people shuffled past the tent on their way to the festival from the parade.

I couldn't help but have this strong sense of community. People in a small town enjoying themselves. It was a good feeling.

I thought that same kind of scene could easily have been played out 60 years ago.

So, not having been around 60 years ago, I enlisted the help of someone who was.

I talked to Tim Shoemaker from the Kosciusko County Historical Society.

He filled me in on what it was like in the 1930s at local gatherings.

He talked about the July 4 holiday and how there would be a parade.

Boys and girls would decorate their bicycle spokes with red, white and blue bunting and ride in the parade.

There would be bands in the parade, along with entries from the saddle horse club and other local groups.

People would spread out blankets and sit on their lawns to watch the parade go by.

There would be lots of cookouts, a few food stands and there was always a patriotic speaker.

The county fair was a much bigger deal. It was held on the streets of Warsaw. They would close most of the streets.

Across from the old Center Lake Park was a large hostelry, where you could rent a horse or buggy.

That's where they displayed all the produce and livestock during the fair.

Farmers would bring in produce to sell, as well, and there were contests for the largest vegetables and tallest corn.

The horse-pulling contest and wrestling matches were highlights.

The carnival consisted of games of "skill" like knocking over milk bottles, and side shows.

In a lot of ways, what was going on in North Webster Wednesday night was very similar.

That strong sense of community. You feel like you belong, like you're part of something.

It's what our politicians are always telling us we need more of - family, traditional values, community.

But this is the '90s. Albeit the end of the '90s. And by the way, what will we call the first decade of the next century? The zeroes?

Anyway, while we were in line at the pie place we ran into Tom Bugg, a North Webster Lion. The Lions organize the whole festival.

He tells us about this giant Tyrannosaurus they have down at the festival that eats cars. Yeah, that's right. Eats cars.

This we have to see.

So after the pie we headed down to an area just north of the carnival rides.

There we find a makeshift arena with a 3-foot-high dirt wall around it.

We arrived right at the beginning of a demolition derby where three guys in old, large sedans tried valiantly to bash each other's vehicle into submission.

After that it was time for a monster truck to drive over and flatten four cars. That was pretty amazing. Come to find out the driver of the monster truck was a 49-year-old grandmother.

I'm wondering what she does for a living because I probably couldn't afford to buy a tire for her truck.

Another demolition derby heat and it was time for the Tyrannosaurus.

This thing was incredible. It slowly rises up out of a rectangular vehicle. It has two big claw-like hands and an enormous mouth. It's about 20 feet tall and blows 10 feet of flame out of its mouth. It drools profusely.

It picks up the car, raises it to its mouth and bites the roof. It pulls away the chassis of the car. The roof rips off and stays in its mouth. It chews on it a couple times and spits it out.

A couple more bites and then the big finale. With jaws open wide, it takes a huge bite that encompasses the entire width of the car. The claw-like hands twist in opposite directions on either side of its head.

A couple final yanks and the car is completely ripped in half and dropped to the ground.

While this is going on, I am wondering who came up with this idea? Were a couple guys sitting around having a few beers or what? "Hey, Joe, you know if we spent a whole bunch of money on hydraulic systems and machining, we could make a big Tyrannosaurus that could eat cars."

"Yeah, yeah. Let's do it! But can we make it drool and blow fire out its nose, too?"

After the Tyrannosaurus, we made a few laps around the carnival. All the rides had blaring rock 'n' roll playing.

I noticed quite a few kids in their teens and younger with small holes in various unusual parts of their bodies. I saw several kids with tattoos. There were lots of pants with legs so wide you could use them for hang glider sails.

But generally it was just a bunch of kids having fun.

I guess the point of all this is that even though today's activities are wildly different than those of 60 years ago, there still is that common thread of community. That sense of belonging. It still exists, but it doesn't seem to be quite as strong as it once was.

The boundaries back then were much stricter. We had a more finite sense of right and wrong.

We didn't have people fighting to enforce political correctness, to rationalize and justify nearly every deviant behavior.

We didn't have a national media that glamorized sex and violence. We didn't have an insatiable desire for sex and violence in our entertainment.

We, as a nation, were (gasp!) conservative. The thread of community was much stronger.

There are lots of people who think our nation should return to some of those conservative, old-fashioned values.

The media label them the "religious right."

There are lots of people who preach situational ethics, moral relativism and hedonism.

The media herald them as the "enlightened."

I don't think we can afford to let the enlightened have their way.

So let the cultural battles rage.

And let's turn the thread of community into a log chain. [[In-content Ad]]