If you haven’t had cause to drive Washington Street in downtown Beeville this week, you really need to find a reason to do so.

Bee County 4-H’ers have outdone themselves in decorating the main street for Western Week. With flowers, scarecrows, pumpkins and much more, the youngsters and their supporters have dressed up the drive that has been gutted for so much of the year with construction projects burying new drainage lines.

Anyone who saw the kids out Monday afternoon in the sweltering humidity and heat can testify this was no lightweight operation. It took several hours and plenty of perspiration to bring the downtown planters to life.

Now if we could just finish the same drainage project on St. Mary’s Street, downtown merchants and drivers would be greatly relieved. While the project is no doubt needed, has there ever been a construction project take longer in Beeville with so many starts and stops?

But we digress – lest we take away from the 4-H’ers’ hard work. Western Week, now in its 37th year is a traditional harbinger of fall around here. Although the majority of the celebration comes next week, mostly at the Bee County Expo Center, events do kick off with the Miss Western Week pageant today (Saturday) at 6:30 p.m. at the A.C. Jones High School auditorium.

So come enhance your sense of community by taking a drive down Washington Street and heading over to the Miss Western Week pageant. You might just find yourself in an autumn state of mind.