Showing posts with label McCleary Bear Festival. Show all posts
Showing posts with label McCleary Bear Festival. Show all posts
From "They" to "We" : the McCleary Bear Festival
Still no phone camera, but I will occasionally offer links of interest. Here's a documentary from the mid-1990s about the history of the McCleary Bear Festival--
Calling all royalty
Oct. 31, 2019
Former Mayor Ellsworth Curran (who lived to be 101) was one of the original 12 incorporators of the McCleary Second Growth Festival (later called McCleary Bear Festival). He told me that in the early years of the Fest the girls who were serving in the royalty were actually sent to charm school. One father instructed Ellsworth, "Well, I growed her up. Now you gotta make a lady outta her."
There was at least one Fest in the 1980s or early 1990s that didn't have any royalty.
My question is why the age limit? It seems rather unfair that those of us over the age of 15 cannot also serve as royalty in our own category. Perhaps there could be a Tsar and Tsarina involving those of more advanced years in our community?
Every picture tells a story
The public restrooms on the left of the photo was about where Henry McCleary had his executive office when his sawmill was in current day Beerbower Park. The kitchen-picnic building behind that was constructed around the late 1980s or early 1990s to replace the original building that had been built in the early days of the McCleary Bear Festival as a place to cook the bear stew.
The current City Hall, constructed in the late 1950s, was originally the site of Henry McCleary's later headquarters. When President Roosevelt came through town in an open car in the 1930s, Henry instructed his employees to turn their backs. After McCleary sold the town to Simpson, he tried living in northern Nevada for a brief time, but that did not work out. In his final year or so even though he resided in Olympia he could occasionally be seen sitting outside of his old headquarters watching the world go by in a town he no longer controlled.
The crosswalk brings to mind this little tale. McCleary has had a long and colorful history of Chiefs of Police. In the 1950s the City hired a young photogenic fellow from Shelton for the job and he was the first person to institute the use of marked crosswalks on the main roads. Most of the residential streets were not paved until much later.
Anyway, after maybe a year the Chief vanished "between two days" as Norman Porter of the McCleary Stimulator put it, with part of the City treasury and someone else's wife. The law finally caught up with him in the Bay Area about a year later. So think of that next time you use a McCleary crosswalk.
The Welcome Bear
Apparently someone sat on the head of the concrete bear in front of City Hall at the SW corner of Anarchy Intersection during the Bear Festival parade and broke the head off. At some point in early August this little chain-saw carved Welcome Bear appeared as a replacement.
Here Comes the Space Age
July 14, 2019
1959 Cadillac at the Bear Fest car show. The car and the Bear Fest were created in the same year.
Dick Balch
July 14, 2019
This Corvette is beautiful but what really caught my eye was the Dick Balch license plate border. Balch was famous in the region nearly a half century ago for slamming his autos with a sledge hammer followed by a high-pitched silly laugh as part of a TV advertising gimmick.
Now Here's Something You Don't See Every Day
July 13, 2019
Dr. Health E. Hound in front of the clinic.
Bear Stew on the Float
July 13, 2019
When it comes down to it, McCleary is really a weird town without knowing how incredibly weird it really is. This lack of self-awareness about their own weirdness is what makes McCleary genuinely weird rather than the pretentious self-conscious or rehearsed weird of other places. The day we see coffee cups or shirts proclaiming "Keep McCleary Weird" will be the day McCleary has become gentrified and no longer weird. And I am afraid that day will come sooner than we think.
Bear Festival Float Preparation
July 13, 2019
The parade floats for McCleary and Shelton prepare for the Bear Festival shindig in the shadow of the Simpson door plant.
Float cockpit
A peek inside the McCleary Bear Festival float cockpit reveals what appears to be a highly modified 1980s era Chevrolet Cavalier.
The Day After
A close-up view of the McCleary Bear Festival float the day after the parade. Lots of hard work and dedication behind these rolling displays that must be labors of love for the volunteers.
1957 Plymouth
A pristine and artfully customized 1957 Plymouth on display at the McCleary Bear Festival car show.
Haunted ambulance
This 1962 Pontiac served as an ambulance in the Raymond area many decades ago. The card describing this unusual vehicle during the McCleary Bear Festival car show claims the ambulance is "haunted." Love the skeleton adornment.
2018 McCleary parade float
The McCleary Bear Festival had a safari theme this year. I see a "wild bear" is also on the float.
Pastel set against drizzle grey
Royalty on their way to board their parade vehicle. McCleary Bear Festival.
That time of year
When I see vendor canopies waiting to be unfolded and a lineup of portable toilets in the park, that is a sure sign the McCleary Bear Festival is about to begin.
A New Tree for Lindsey Baum
Lindsey Baum's tree was recently replaced. According to one news piece: in the place of the former Tree of Hope is now planted a Memorial Tree. Lindsey would have been 20 years old on July 7, 2018, the same day as the McCleary Bear Festival parade.
https://www.king5.com/article/news/local/justice-for-lindsey-baum-saturday-event-marks-20th-birthday-of-murdered-washington-girl/281-571445815
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