Last week, Chelsea kicked off its popular weekly summer feature, Sounds & Sights on Thursday Nights.  The opening night of S&S was threatened briefly by a storm that passed through the area (and knocked out power to some), but much to the relief of the organizers, the storm moved on before the festivities began.

One of the highlights of the evening was a beard contest run by Gary Reed of Reed Barbering.  The contest featured a number of different categories, including best mustache, best goatee, best beard, most Santa Claus-like beard, and whitest beard.  I just sort of happened to compete in the goatee category, and somehow I managed to win the award for best goatee over a man sporting a red goatee very much like mine, except his was a bit shorter and a bit neater.

Sadly, Gary doesn’t dress this way for work every day.

This distinguished gentleman won the award for most Santa Claus-like beard.

Cute children are an important part of a small-town newspaper photographer’s job.

Like I said…