A Taste of Zanesville

It is summer time which means being at home, 95% humidity, daytime television, and strange town festivals. I'm from Zanesville, Ohio which is a little pimple on the map of Ohio. It's a boring place to live, we have decent shopping and few restaurant chains, a y shaped bridge and some rivers. It's probably not a town to brag about, but it has been my home since I was a baby. When the weather begins to heat up, the council heads of Zanesville try to gather the community to take part in some sort of consumer therapy.

A Taste of Zanesville has been happening downtown for the past nine years and strangely this has been the first year I had ever heard of it/cared about it. Always eager for a change of scenery, I took my boyfriend Alex to taste Zanesville (prior to leaving he exclaimed that Zanesville would taste like drugs and I said it would probably taste like unwashed masses.. probably not a fair assumption).

Appropriately enough, A Taste of Zanesville is my first Simple Pleasure. Why? you ask. I look for any excuse to walk downtown. Any culture that is to be found in a little podunk town like Zanesville, can be found downtown. The architecture screams of yesteryear, it is grandious, ancient and beautiful. It is usually an unpopulated and not busy area of town since most businesses have moved to the metropolis that is Maple Avenue (Maple Ave. is where Wal-Mart and the Mall reside). A Taste of Zanesville also provided free samples of food and ice cream, and those are always classic Simple Pleasures in my book.


Alex enjoying frozen custard from the Whit's booth and looking at all of the fun to be had in the St. Thomas parking lot


This a pottery throwing booth. I think kids could throw bricks or something at old coffee mugs.. I don't know, I really don't understand this town.


As always, I'm more interested in the strange little alleyways that can be found all over the downtown area.

So if you find yourself in Zanesville, Ohio and you are looking for the most Simple Pleasures for your buck, try the downtown area, there are neat little things like a nice park for sitting and watch the sun set on the Muskingum River (I did that a few days ago), fun statues, antiques, and neat-o buildings.