BY CHARLIE JORDAN
As the spring season rolls in, the high school begins to start thinking about Spring Break; where they are going, when they are leaving, how many days until that one week break. When Mariemont students talk about Spring Break, “Rosemary” is often a part of the conversation. Not the herb Rosemary; the community located 741 miles away in Walton County, Florida on Florida State Route 30A.
Rosemary is a place where many Mariemont families call home for one week out of the year. As some of the community picks itself up and moves to northern Florida, there must be a reason. Whether it be the people who go or the weather: everyone has their reason.
While many people love Rosemary, there are also many who are skeptical of the village of Mariemont moving to Florida. Sophomore Miller Steele and his family decided that they were not going on the annual Rosemary trip this year.
“It’s cool to have friends that go, but if the whole community is there it defeats the purpose of Spring Break,” he says. Along with the number of people who go, Steele also did not enjoy the weather. He says, “The weather is unpredictable, you never know what kind of day it’s going to be.” This year, rain is predicted.
Senior Mollie Coates agrees with Steele that getting away from the community is the point of Spring Break. She says, “It seems like it would be fun for the first three hours, but then it would just seem like another day in Mariemont after that.” She went on to explain that she believes that anyone who wants to go will be welcomed.
A classmate of Steele’s, Bradley Barrett, offers a differing opinion of the beach. “It has great weather and a lot of my friends go,” says Barrett when asked about Rosemary. While Bradley goes to Rosemary with his family, he spends much of his time hanging out with his friends. They spend most of their time on the beach, but when they are looking to get food there are a few local places to go. Barrett recommends Crabby Steve’s, a seafood restaurant, and Cowgirl’s Kitchen, a pizza restaurant, for dinner. He also mentions the Sugar Shak that provides overpriced candies for your sweet tooth.
Similar to Steele, freshman Payton Megowen will not be trekking to Rosemary for the first time in the last four years. While Megowen enjoys going on spring break with her friends, her parents were looking for somewhere different to go.
“Rosemary is more for teenagers,” says Megowen. She does not believe there is an exclusive group at Rosemary as she says, “I feel like a lot of the same people keep going back, but every year there are a bunch of new people that come.”
Senior Collin Widecan agrees with Barrett and Megowen. Widecan has gone to Rosemary every spring break since he was a freshman. “Rosemary is a place where all your friends are and you are never bored,” he says. He went on to talk about how there was an original group of people who went to Rosemary and more people have started to come. He does not think it is exclusive, and if someone wants to come they should.
On the other hand, junior Bobby Dennerll does not like the idea of Rosemary. “Even if no one went to Rosemary I wouldn’t want to go; everyone going just makes it worse,” he says. He went on to say, “It would just like a weekend in Mariemont, but with a beach.” Dennerll enjoys his different vacation spots as he plans to visit former Warrior McKinnon Pennell at Sewanee (in Tennessee) and then go to Mexico with his family for the remainder of the break.