Written by Abagale Elliott

Friday Night on the Square, more recently known as Saturday on the Square, was held last Saturday morning. The Washington Country Chamber made this decision. Was this change a more family-friendly option, or was it a mistake?

Friday Night on the Square, started in 1991, has historically been on a Friday during September and also a Friday in the spring. The tradition has also been at a later time, usually 6-9 p.m. The tradition was changed this year and the Friday Night on the Square during the spring has been removed. 

According to the Washington County Chamber, they moved the tradition due to Football conflicts and problems with timing for the businesses on the square. 

“With fewer scheduling conflicts, the Chamber anticipates a significant increase in attendance, fostering a more bustling and lively atmosphere around the historic courthouse square,” the chamber director said in a press release. 

Decisions like this one should be influenced by a poll of some sort or listening to the feedback of the community. If not, as we see in this situation, people will get angry.

Some community members said things about the decision as soon as it was made. On the Washington County Chamber Facebook page, community members made their opinions known. 

Community member Shelby Niehaus said, “So we change it to the hottest part of the day?” and community member Mellisa Shocke said, “This is the most deranged thing Salem could do!”

I went to the brand-new Saturday on the square as a volunteer for the Girl Scouts’ Chalk Fest booth. I got to talk to many people and hear their general opinions on the change of tradition. 

The square was largely empty. There was only one running food vender, open for about half of the time I was there, and they were swamped with orders. The small groups of people who did show up were largely underwhelmed at first. Some people came to the square obviously looking for some semblance of the ghost of Friday Night on the Square past but they didn’t find it. 

Instead, they found something else in its place. They found a calm environment without the constant consumerist need to buy. They found a small community of mostly people who were doing chalk art and buying comic books.

Most of the booths were information booths like the LGBTQ+ booth, or geared towards children, like the bouncy houses or the chalk booth. There wasn’t that constant need to buy that there usually was, especially since people could stop to calm down and draw.

It was not all as bad as it may seem based upon the photo. The lack of cars usually has no effect on the animal life on the square due to the large groups that crowd the square as soon as the cars leave, but on Saturday there were no large groups, so there were birds and butterflies everywhere. 

The whole event had a different atmosphere. There were less groups of teenagers too, probably because of the time of day it was held. The whole event was targeted toward an undisturbed group of tranquility-seeking people. 

The event was also more welcoming, as there were many people not from Salem there. I had multiple people asking me questions about what was happening because they weren’t from the area. That could’ve been just because people are more likely to drive through Salem and stop at an event in the morning, or maybe it was the lack of people walking around that made the event look like less of a task to navigate.

“Hello Salem from Canada” and “Hi Salem” were written in chalk on the sidewalk. These people’s first impressions of Salem were that of the stereotypical small town: empty. This does not mean that they were bad impressions. I went to Friday Night on the Square last year and there were people walking around in large groups yelling out political opinions. This year there was an accepting air. From what I saw the booth that was handing out LGBTQ+ stickers and bracelets was unharmed and there were less people complaining about it. 

The lack of people in this situation is a very good thing. Less people to gang up and find courage in numbers, yelling out profanity. Our small town looked like a small town on Saturday, Sep. 20th. 

While the change wasn’t exactly welcomed, it was nice to see what could be. They tried to change the tradition and it didn’t exactly work out, but we should still be glad we got to see what it would be like to experience the square in a way we’ve never before. Overall, Saturday on the Square was a whole different experience than any Friday Night on the Square has been.