Let Me Tell Y’all A Story is a weekly column that’s not focused on sports. It’s brought to you by our partners at Chuck Owens, Alfa Insurance.

I know that you Christmas fiends were itching to put up your tree as soon as the calendar flipped over to September.

We are officially into what passes for fall in Mississippi.

I’m not complaining, I’ll take 85 degrees over 95 every day, but it’s still going to be hot for a while longer around these parts.

Maybe leave your sweaters in the closet a little longer.

One thing I love about this time of year is how it’s festival season in Southwest Mississippi.

McComb held its annual Iron Horse Music and Heritage Festival last weekend.

The highlight of the weekend was American Idol winner Jamal Roberts performing a sold-out show in downtown McComb at the venue known as The Mill.

Summit has a Fall Festival coming up on Oct. 11 and over in Meadville, they’re busy preparing for the Homochitto River Festival.

If you’ve seen anything about the event in Franklin County on social media, then you know Lane and Brad have Paul Overstreet and Paul Thorn headlining a day full of vendors, music, and a car show. The music lineup is loaded with great local acts that’ll keep the good tunes flowing from 8 a.m. until 8 p.m.

The Homochitto River Festival is scheduled for Oct. 25.

My favorite festival this time of year is the one that I can walk to, the annual Ole Brook Festival in downtown Brookhaven.

Ole Brook will be held for the 51st time on Oct. 3-4.

Before I go over what’s happening this year, let an old man reminisce for a minute on some of his favorite memories of a small-town festival.

My first memories of Ole Brook were when it was held on the playground of Brookhaven Elementary School. The area was loaded with trees and the vendors set up tents and tables in the shade as the line of booths went from Chickasaw Street on one end to Chippewa Street on the other.

Maybe all that shade is why it felt cooler back then in my childhood memories. I swear I remember wearing a jacket on cool September evenings of my youth.

It was the mid 1990s and the baseball card collecting craze had taken hold of the nation’s youth.

I can remember standing amongst a table of cards, put out by a local shop, on a particularly beautiful day of Ole Brook festivities on the playground.

A kid beside me was digging through a box and every time he pulled a card he wanted, he’d show it to his friends and use a string of expletives while doing so.

A lady walking by heard him drop approximately four f-bombs over a Tony Gwynn card he’d pulled and looked him in the face and said, “hey kid, watch your mouth.”

I don’t know how an interaction like that would play out today. I’d imagine he might bolt off to find his mama or get a cell phone out to record the coming confrontation, but I’ll never forget what the potty-mouth kid said in 1990-something.

“I’m sorry, ma’am,” he said, while looking her right in the eyes. “I’ve been in school at Chamberlain-Hunt and that’s how everyone talks over there.”

If you didn’t know, Chamberlain-Hunt was a reform school located in Port Gibson that many parents used as a threat for misbehaving kids back in the day. My guess is ole buddy knew those terms before he ever went to C-H.

The festival outgrew that space and I don’t want to throw any stones here, but whoever decided to move it to the Hansel King Sports Complex almost put an end to the event.

There is more shade on the surface of the sun, and no one wanted to peruse homemade wooden nicknacks and soaps while broiling alive.

The event was moved downtown and as that section of Brookhaven has improved over the years, so has the festival.

It’s gotten better and better under the leadership of Garrick Combs, Katie Nations, and Jillian Ricceri at the Brookhaven Lincoln County Chamber of Commerce.

There will be live music, food trucks, arts and crafts, and a kid’s zone, which cost $10 for a wristband and allows your child to play on a variety of different inflatable attractions all day.

The music starts on Friday night with Noah Lynch and Soul Link playing on the downtown stage just across from the chamber building from 6 pm. until 9 p.m.

A full lineup of music begins on Saturday at 10:30 a.m. and will include Komplete, the Wildflowers Duo, Southwind Band, the Lincoln Outfit, and a performance by vocal students from the Mississippi School of the Arts.

For me, it’s a time where everything good about living this small-town life is distilled into a singular weekend.

On Ole Brook weekend, you often see old friends or acquaintances that haven’t been back home in years. Many of them have dinner one night downtown too.

Open your eyes and you’ll also notice just how many volunteers lend their time to making sure that everything goes well at Ole Brook, which is the sign of a community that cares.

Nothing good gets done without great people willing to volunteer at an event like this.

Don’t read this and think I’m saying our town is perfect, because it’s not. It just feels it’s best when we’re all hanging out downtown for Ole Brook.

My son Graham is 13 years old and I think my favorite all-time Ole Brook memory must have taken place five years ago, when he was 8-years old.

He’d gone downtown with my buddy Lance Newman and his buddy Lake Newman.

I don’t think his mama or I knew this, but Graham had taken his wallet with him to Ole Brook, which contained all the birthday money he’d ever saved, which was around $120.

Even before I walked down that day, I started getting reports from friends about Graham and Lake. They were walking around downtown with rubber-band guns in each hand. At one point I think they were also shirtless and shoeless.

When I finally caught up with him later, he was dirty and looked like he was ready to join Peter Pan’s group of Lost Boys.

How much money did you spend on all this, I asked him.

All of it, he said.

You spent over $100 on rubber-band guns, I repeated with a laugh.

Not just for me, was his defense. I bought some for my friends too.

He’d been too broke to buy any food but told me Mr. Lance had taken care of that.

It’s a day that makes me grin every time it crosses my mind.

Take your kids to a small-town festival in Southwest Mississippi.

Turn em loose and let them have fun.

Just make sure you set a budget before they get to the booth with the rubber-band guns.