STORY AND PHOTOS BY KAREN BOSSICK
Katrina Kolman’s friends threw her a 29th birthday party—aboard a float.
And Elijah Lindley’s friends, including Matt Schell, rode a pickup truck through town, selling “Moving the Mountain” hats to raise money for their friend’s recovery from a motorcycle accident.
Ketchum’s Wagon Days Parade may have the giant ore wagons and antique carriages. But Bellevue’s Labor Day Parade has heart.
The tiny community’s spirit shone bright Monday as the city closed down Main Street to trot out antique tractors and youngsters throwing candy from the basket of a backhoe for the 93rd annual Bellevue Labor Day Celebration.
The event was started by union members of the Triumph and North Star mines, with the original focal point being the community picnic held on the banks of the Big Wood River at the Old City Park.
Miners cooked up barbecue in two old mine cars, starting the fires in the cars around noon Saturday and keeping them going for 24 hours. On Sunday they’d remove the large pieces of wood with long-handled shovels, leaving a layer of coals on the bottom which they covered with sand. They then seasoned a pig, wrapped it in unbleached muslin and covered it with dirt letting it cook until mid-day Labor Day.
For this Labor Day celebration, Katrina Kolman loaded up a dozen youngsters she claimed to have bribed with candy and put them to work throwing Laffy Taffys and Tootsie Rolls to hundreds of youngsters lining the parade route.
“I decided there was not nearly enough candy being thrown at the Fourth of July Parade in Hailey. So I decided to do this for my 29th birthday because I could,” she said. “Next year I’ll be back celebrating my Dirty Thirty.”
Bellevue and Hailey Fire Chiefs Greg Beaver and Craig Aberbach were among those who got to blast people’s ears out with their sirens.
”It’s a wonderful thing—the kids love it and I can kind of zone out,” said Beaver. “When you’re going to a fire, usually the phone is ringing and you’re worried that someone will stop in front of you. This is much more relaxing.”
It was especially relaxing for Hailey Police Chief Jeff Gunter, who watched the siren blowing from the sidelines since it was his day off.
But his wife Gloria Gunter was busy plotting her first-ever hundred-mile run through Arizona.
“I think it’s mainly mental,” she said. “I’ll run and I’ll walk. The key is to keep moving.”
Kids spread out up and down the street holding Atkinsons’s grocery bags as wide as they could, alon with Easter baskets, sandbox buckets and even a Mexican sombrero, for the expected onslaught of candy.
Employees of Brandie’s restaurant didn’t disappoint, throwing baskets full of candy into the crowd while others tossed out sunglasses, foam footballs, and toothbrushes.
Tim East showed off the 1958 former Union Pacific truck, which he brought 42 years ago for $500. Number two in Union Pacific’s fleet, the truck was used on the mountain, he said.
Since it came out in 1958, you can call it Kid Quigley if you were born before 1958. If you’re younger, call it Uncle Quigley,” he said.
This year’s grand marshal, Mark Acker, rode with his border terrier named Badger and the mayor’s wife Kim Koch.
“I moved here in 1984 and I’ve been to most of the Labor Day celebrations,” said Acker, who originally ran his Sawtooth Animal Clinic out of a small two-bedroom house where he lived in the basement. “I remember when they put on a free barbecue every year. It was fun but it took a tremendous amount of work. I shucked corn most of those years.”
Mayor Chris Koch rode down Main Street before hobbling to the announcer’s booth, favoring a three-quarters torn Achilles tendon he injured stepping into a gopher hole.
He proceeded to announce the rest of the parade, then spun stories about the RVs and other cars heading south out of town as if they were part of the parade.
Sue Rowland, one of four women honored by this year’s Blaine County Museum Heritage Court lamented that this was the last of parades she and the others would ride in as part of their reign.
“We’ve been riding on hay bales so this is pretty nice,” said Betty Murphy of the Cinderella carriage the women rode in during the Labor Day Parade.
The Hurdy Gurdy Girls, Mia Edsal, Sofa King and Dewey, Pickette and Howe took up where the parade took off, spinning tunes for five hours at Bellevue City Park.
Richard Fife showed off a model of the USS Idaho submarine, set to come out in three years from now, which will be 77 feet longer than a football field and able to detect the sounds of bots several hundred miles away.
As he talked, other men did KP duty for popular taco wagons, paring mangoes and other melons for fruit-on-a stick concessions.
“I don’t think people realize how wonderful Bellevue’s two-day Labor Day celebration really is,” said Kristin Fletcher. “It’s kind of like the old Northern Rockies Folk Festival! Lots of fun things for kids, booths selling stuff, lots of food… Just a great event.”