No need for program at parade

BLANCHARD, Idaho – The 150 or so residents of this bucolic North Idaho community know how to have a good time.

Just about all of them were on the sidewalk in front of the Blanchard Trading Co. Saturday morning for the fifth Blanchard Daze parade. If they weren’t there, they probably were in the three-block-long parade.

And if they were in the parade, they were probably tossing candy.

Blanchard residents Doug Yergens and Morris Porter flung theirs from a unique two-seat tricycle that Yergens built with bicycle parts he found at the dump.

“I just cut the front ends off of two bikes,” Yergens explained.

The finely detailed, flag-flying rig won a blue ribbon in the non-motorized category.

Of course, everyone knew how Yergens built the trike to keep busy in the winter. Likewise, they knew that the driver of the Blanchard Community Church float, 16-year-old Gabriel Wilson, had just gotten his driver’s license.

Grand Marshal Esther Amos, a 71-year Blanchard resident, rode in George Booten’s well-worn 1929 Model A Ford.

“It’s just seven years younger than I am,” Amos said of her ride. “I was born in ‘22.”

The car is one of two vintage vehicles that are Booten’s regular transportation. The other is a 1934 Ford truck he uses to haul lumber from his small sawmill.

“There’s a string of traffic behind him for a mile, usually,” Amos said.

“It’ll go faster than you think,” Booten countered. “You can run her up to 70 if you want to.”

Indeed, in a demonstration on State Route 41, Booten had no difficulty achieving the 60 mph speed limit — thanks in part to an unusual two-stick transmission with 12 forward gears.

Part of the charm of the two-day festival, which continues today with a church service and a community potluck, is its informality.

“Are we heading that way?” 5-year-old Christopher Wynne asked as he and other children lined up for the stick-horse races.

Greg Rudd, 9, was equally befuddled.

“Where do we go?” Rudd demanded. “Who’s in charge?”

Eventually, the racers got their instructions and Fred Ghio started them with a blank round from one of his twin Ruger “Bird’s Head” Vaquero pistols. Ghio, alias Bad Breed Bodine, is a cowboy action shooter with the national Single Action Shooting Society.

Wynne galloped to victory in the 3- to 5-year-old age bracket. Tom Curotto came in dead last in the adult division when his stuffed steed ran in the wrong direction.

Blanchard Daze had everything a community fair needs: good food, homespun music and lots of activities for kids. Better still, lots of free activities for kids.

“You go home; you’re winning too much,” Alton Chrisco joked when Chance Gentry, who’s almost 4, climbed onto the shooting-gallery bench and knocked over two yellow, wooden ducks with a rubber-band gun.

Gentry left with a big smile and a handful of prizes: sunglasses, pencils, stickers and a bright red homemade bag.

No fair would be complete without colorful vendors, and Blanchard Daze had those, too. None was more colorful than local author Fielden “Sonny” L. Poirier and his publisher, Rich Rosanova, also of Blanchard.

“It’s got some really good stories,” Rosanova said of Poirier’s anecdotal history, “Out Blanchard Way.” “There’s some really dry humor pieces in there.”

Pictures, too.

“This outhouse still exists,” Rosanova said, flipping to an image of a Depression-era privy built by the federal Work Progress Administration. “Some of the old boys go over occasionally and make sure it’s still working.”

Blanchard Daze is one of a number of projects with which the Blanchard Area Seniors Inc. and other volunteers are promoting in the community, according to festival chairwoman Mae Cannon.

The seniors group has raised more than $80,000 through monthly fund-raisers to match a $100,000 federal grant for a planned community center.

Activists also have raised money to establish a branch of the West Bonner Library District in Blanchard.

The branch is to open soon in a double-wide mobile home across the road from the post office and the historic outhouse.