ATHENS-Friday nights in Athens aren’t just about football, well, at least this week.
Sept. 9 is the last Fridays After Five of the season in Downtown Athens, and those who enjoy the sport of shopping can come out before high school football kicks off or stay late. Participating merchants and vendors will be open until 8 p.m. and offer various sales and give-away items.
The Spirit of Athens, a Main Street organization, hosts Fridays After Five 
along with merchants to encourage later business hours on the second Fridays of each month from July through September. This week, Clements High School’s Key Club is joining the team to volunteer with set-up, taking care of vendors, clean-up and other needs.
Holly Holman
“Seeing that a younger generation is interested and invested in Downtown Athens, the heart of Limestone County, is encouraging because these students are not only shoppers but future business owners and community leaders who see the value of promoting our downtown,” said Spirit of Athens Board Member Holly Hollman.
The game plan for this week’s event includes music, art and food along with retail.
Gray and Holt entered the game early by kicking of its Second Annual 
Sidewalk Sale on Thursday. The sale will continue Friday and Saturday with extended store hours until 8 p.m. each night. Shoppers will find “Cotton” logo T-shirts, sweatshirts and hoodies, Carhartt items, Southern and collegiate shirts and more. Shoppers also can register for a $50 gift certificate give-away.
Among the other merchants offering deals will be Trinity’s giving away food samples and offering 50 percent off summer merchandise, and Willow
Cottage holding a 20 percent off sale.
Shoppers who stay in the middle of the field so to speak by not venturing off The Square, the area immediately around the Limestone County Courthouse, are missing out on scoring great deals. Shoppers should make a play call to stroll the streets past The Square to find antiques at Garnett’s, local art at High Cotton Arts and much more.
In addition to the downtown merchants and restaurants there will be craft 
and food vendors set up on sidewalks in downtown. Elkmont artist Teresa Richey and the City of Athens Relay for Life Team will sell Santa and Grinch gourds and gourd ornaments that have been inspired by the purple color for Relay and pink for breast cancer awareness. Part of the proceeds will go to the American Cancer Society.
“I taught myself to paint in college and was always interested in taking something and making it into a treasure,” Richey said. “I saw some gourds one day and started to see they looked like something other than a gourd. The first few were not so pretty, but then I would sit and look at the gourd, and actually talk to it. I know, saying that makes me laugh. Then as I began to paint they took on a personality all their own.”
Richey has created houses, Santas, Grinches, cats, purses, and even a moose.
“I love seeing how each one will turn out and how they all have their own personality,” she said. “It is a passion that I love – creating the unimaginable.”
High Cotton Arts
Art lovers also can check out original and locally made paintings, jewelry, and other art at High Cotton Arts and enjoy live music in front of Athens State University’s Center for Lifelong Learning. Erik Smallwood, worship pastor of Friendship North in Elkmont, a campus of a Friendship United Methodist Church, will perform in front of the Center for Lifelong Learning from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. Smallwood said he is inspired by different music but is drawn to “bluesy, soulful and Southern rock.”
“I’m originally from The Shoals area, but I have been pursuing a music
career in North Carolina the last 10 years,” Smallwood said. “After prayer, and God changing me and my wife’s hearts, doors were flung wide open to move back here to Alabama and be a part of Friendship Church and the community of Athens and Elkmont and the surrounding areas.”
In addition to being a worship pastor, in his spare time, he plays gigs for extra money and to enjoy entertaining people.
“Just come out (to Downtown Athens) and check out a show yourself,” Smallwood advised.
