Olde Tyme Peach Festival in Middletown, DE August 19, 2012

One of the best family events in Middletown, DE is the Olde Tyme Peach Festival held the 3rd Saturday in August. When we first moved to Middletown in 1993, we didn’t attend regularly because it was small and somewhat boring with a few vendors, a short parade and intense heat. However, for the past several years we have gone on a regular, and in my opinion, yesterday’s festival was by far the best with the largest attendance, the most vendors and to top it off, incredible weather!

I had been looking forward to going all week but the forecast had me a bit concerned even though the festival is held rain or shine. Thankfully the rain ended early Saturday morning and the sun beamed brightly for the remainder of the day. The heat wasn’t an intense mid-August melt and considering the recent heat wave, we were truly blessed to have had a perfect day.

Usually our day begins watching the parade with a beverage from The Java House Cafe and ends with taking home fried fish sandwiches made by members of Dale United Methodist Church. Hubby had an early morning event so we missed the parade, but got there before noon and spent several hours walking and enjoying our little town’s festival. The Square was filled with people, young and old, families with kids, pets, live music, dancers, vendors, politicians, food, games, giveaways and genuine small-town fun. The local stores were advertising Peach Festival sales, and we stopped in at Off The Kuffs to check out the mens wear. Walking with my fam, sipping iced Green Tea brought back memories of being in New York during their annual street festivals.

The Peach Festival is presented by the Middletown Historical Society and they should be commended on making this event an annual success. In years to come they may need to close off more streets as I can certainly see it becoming even larger with the time extended beyond 4:00.

As we walked hubby and I were on the look out for Dale’s spot, in search of their infamous fried fish sandwiches, soaked in hot sauce between two pieces of white bread! Up and down every street, looking, sniffing, searching….all we found was the vacant space where the Church normally sets up…not sure what happened but pray it wasn’t anything serious. We also missed out on buying a Peach Pie from MOT Senior Center but was glad they moved them onto vendor’s row.

Disappointed and hungry we walked back to The Java House Cafe and ordered Jerk Chicken Panini’s and Mango Smoothies. The sandwiches were perfect, just the right amount of Caribbean spice to satisfy my taste buds and more than enough to make me forget about the fish sandwiches…at least until next year!

See ya next year!

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