STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Shelby Hansen is used to having someone quip, “Wait! I’ll help you find your glass slipper!”
It comes with the territory when you drive a carriage fit for Cinderella down the streets of Ketchum in the 60th annual Wagon Days Parade.
Hansen’s grandfather bought the white pumpkin-like carriage with its heart-shaped step at an auction in Jerome 10 years ago. And the Carey woman took over the Canadian-built carriage a few years ago, using it for parades and weddings.
“It’s a people pleaser. It makes anyone feel like Cinderella,” said Hansen, who runs Sagebrush Belgiums. “I drove it down the aisle in a hayfield during my wedding with my bridesmaids inside ‘the castle’ and my father serving as coachman. Even when I’m in a parade, someone’s always running after me trying to get my phone number so they can use it in their wedding.”
Hansen drove the Ladies of the Heritage Court in her carriage during Saturday’s Wagon Days parade. Hers was one of about 50 antique wagons and carriages, including the Lewis ore wagons that took part.
A crowd of people four and five deep lined the sidewalks of Ketchum, watching a back-to-back trap Studebaker carriage in which the driver faces forward while passengers sit behind facing backwards. The carriage built in 1887 was pulled by two 175-pound miniature horses named Mountie and Noble.
Gene and Renay Wood of Arimo, Idaho, used it to ferry handicapped—or what Gene calls “exceptional”—children around rodeos for years. They entered it into the Wagon Days parade at the encouragement of Jim and Debbie Hook, who have driven other carriages in the parade.
“Little wagons like these are a lot of fun,” said Debbie Hook. “I can put the wagon and the horses in a trailer and drive to town by myself. I can just picture an 8-year-old girl with a pony driving one of these to school.”
Mike and Jeannie Beavers of Wilder paired up with the Wood River Chapel to drive a hundred-plus year-old hearse they found in South Dakota. Mike wore a black flock coat split in the back so he could ride a horse, along with a bow tie that resembled droopy dog ears and top hat. Jeannie wore a black mourning dress made of crepe back satin and a little hat with a black ostrich feather.
“We retired and wanted something to do so we began taking this to parades, wagon trains, weddings and funerals. We use it in a lot of funerals for horse people,” said Mike.
Ketchum resident Lilian Wu was among those riding in the Ketchum firefighters’ wagon, which spotlighted the efforts of firefighter walking the parade route asking parade goers to stuff their boots for muscular dystrophy.
“The firefighters are incredible. Not only do they fight fires but they have such big hearts, raising funds for muscular dystrophy patients and their families and those with ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease),” said Wu, who serves on the national MDA board based in Chicago. “Over the years all the money raised has gone into research –we’re just starting to learn how some drugs might address the problem. And this is a very special Labor Day because Jerry Lewis who was held Labor Day telethons, recently passed away.”
Connie Maricich, who was among the spectators, was there for the first Big Hitch Parade in 1958 when there were so few horses that horses would pull one wagon around the route and then take a second around.
“This is the best parade I’ve seen anywhere,” she said. “In the early days, I always dressed up in those embroidered cowboy shirts—they’ve now collector items. There weren’t nearly as many people then. But I love seeing all the people—the older people, the little people, people I haven’t seen in awhile.”
Jean Pierre Chesnel of Bellevue agreed.
“I tried to be a jockey when I was a kid in France so seeing a hundred horses makes me happy. And seeing the young women riding horses like they do I think is fabulous. Besides, where can you get a free hot dog in Paris?”
Among those serving up free dogs Saturday was Dick Wetherell, whose wife Joanne Wetherell has staged Wagon Days parties for clients at RE/MAX of Sun Valley since 1995.
“One year we had to trade out the Bloody Marys for hot chocolate and coffee because it snowed and no one wanted anything with ice,” Joanne recalled.
Bob Kesting, an associate with RE/MAX entertained a couple he’d just sold a house to over the potato salad.
“I used to be a teacher and I came here from Thousand Oaks, Calif., where they were dealing with guns and knives in the schools,” he said. “I knew I had made the right move when a teacher got up in the teachers meeting and said, ‘Argggghh. We have kids coming to school with gum in their mouths!’ ”
Back on the streets of Ketchum John Christensen wore a vest of Wagon Days pins dating back to 1967 when he was a bell hop at the Sun Valley Lodge.
“Now we have camels and bison, too. Things have gotten smaller and more compact over the years,” he said.
As Christensen reminisced, little Thomas Rex (T Rex) Roberts sped down the parade route on his scooter.
He’d started out wearing a cowboy vest and a cowboy gun but swapped those out, changing his identity to a Musketeer when the Balloon Doctor made him a balloon sword.
“Wagon Days is the highlight of his summer,” said his mother. “He loves the horses and the wagons. He has a ball.”