In the mid-afternoon heat Sunday, Rosedale residents Annabell Phillips and Mary Humbert had pulled up a seat at a picnic table under a tree, taking advantage of the much-needed shade.
The two were enjoying a lazy afternoon on the third, and final, day of the annual Dundalk Heritage Fair held in Heritage Park. “I haven?t been in what seems like 50 years,” Phillips said.
For Humbert, Sunday was her first visit.
“We went to church this morning and she asked me if I wanted to do something this afternoon, so we decided to come down,” Humbert said.
Around them were families and friends enjoying funnel cakes, hodogs and bratwurst and peppers. Children rode carnival rides and got an up-close look at goats and a miniature horse at the petting zoo. Three stages provided ample musical entertainment from ranging from local bands to beer garden karaoke.
Tucked away between exhibit stands and one music stage, Brenda Yarrison had set up shop as a face-painter. With a few quick strokes of her brush, Yarrison painted a rosebud on the cheeck of a squirming Kayla Oxendine, 4, who came to the 31st annual festival with her mom, Nina Johnson.
“We come every year,” Johnson said. “I?ve been coming since I was little. We usually come for the parade, but I brought her for the rides mostly.”
Yarrison said she could easily paint hundreds of roses in the course of a weekend. When she?s not painting flowers and panda bears on the faces and arms of children, Yarrison works as a teacher mentor at Halstead Academy in Baltimore County.
“This is what I do all summer, travel around to big craft fairs,” she said. “I figure if I?m off all summer, I?ve got to make some money somehow.”
Dundalk will hold its 72nd annual Independence Day Parade at 8:30 a.m. Tuesday starting at the Logan Village Shopping Center. The Maryland National Guard will perform a flyover at 10 a.m.
