BATTLE GROUND — How many ways were there to get to Harvest Days on Saturday?
Let’s see: By car. Bike. On foot. Stroller pushed by mom. Assisted-living-center bus. Simulated dugout canoe. Horseback. And, if you were wearing a tiara and a rose-colored gown, parade float.
With a 90-minute parade and a festival grounds brimming with activity, Clark County’s second-largest community staged its annual second-to-none community festival this weekend. It concludes this afternoon at Battle Ground Village, 1207 S.E. Rasmussen Blvd.
Saturday’s highlights included a car show, 4-H poultry and rabbit contests and one of the area’s best used book sales.
Most of the action took place at Battle Ground Village south of downtown. Visitors got an appetizer-sized portion of the Clark County Fair, with live entertainment, commercial booths selling everything from Peruvian woollens to chiropractic advice, and, of course, lots of the food your doctor told you not to eat.
Those too young to know about that sort of thing were fascinated by the carnival. For only three tickets, young legs got a chance to master the Monkey Maze and then exit via a banana-colored slide. And several rides offered a chance for a mechanical spin.
A highlight of the day was the annual parade. This year’s parade lasted almost 90 minutes and featured more than 45 candy giveaways, for a rate of about one candy toss every 100 seconds. Rather than join the candy mob one enterprising legislative candidate, Republican Ann Rivers, gave away bags to haul home the stash.
A highlight of the parade was the Battle Ground Garden Club’s oldest and youngest members taking tea together in the back end of a 1962 Chevrolet Corvair Rampside — a sort-of-truck, sort-of-car contraption made famous mostly by Ralph Nader’s opposition to it.
This one was painted bright pink with a cranberry stripe. Er, make that puce and maroon. “My husband said he wouldn’t be caught dead driving a pink truck,” said its owner, club president Barb Sizemore.
Saturday, it was adorned with flowers from club members’ gardens, while LaDonna Lopossa and youngsters Cora Pace and Ella Bleu Pace took tea in the back. They used an elegant silver service, wore white gloves, and ate crumpets. (And there were some delicious red Swedish Fish candies hidden under the lace-covered table, if you knew whom to ask.)
What a difference a week made for the Corvair. “Last week, it was full of alpaca poop for my garden,” Sizemore said.
For a more authentic ride, Earl and Michela French of Vancouver brought their carefully restored 1930 Model A Ford. The Frenches are part of the Camas-based Flying Eagle A’s antique car club, which Saturday had the honor of transporting Mayor Mike Ciraulo along the parade route.
French said he and his wife have owned their green-and-black sedan for about four years. In that time, they have spent countless hours and a good deal of money to make the four-door Ford better than new.
“You work on ’em six days a week and drive ’em on Saturday,” French said, showing off the engine — still the original, capable of producing a mighty 23.9 HP at 2,000 RPM — as his wife adorned the front bumper with flags. (Just kidding about the “mighty” … a 2010 Ford Mustang, a similar sized car, produces 305 HP at 6,500 RPM. French says his Model A tops out at about 50 mph.)
“It’s a good hobby … you meet a lot of people. The main thing we enjoy are the kids.”
And that, in a nutshell, is what Harvest Days is all about.
Craig Brown: 360-735-4514; craig.brown@columbian.com.
