In the Register’s look back in history this week was an article about Veterans Day 1954. That year 26 bands and drum corps marched through downtown Iola. Thousands lined the streets.
Last Saturday’s Veterans Day celebration paled in comparison.
One observer mentioned that perhaps we should change how we do fall festivals hereabouts. He might be onto something.
His suggestion was to move Farm-City Days to coincide with the Allen County Fair. His rationale was then Veterans Day, isolated in mid-fall, would draw more participation, both for its parade and in spectator numbers, without competition of another recent festival.
Farm-City Days was a summer event at the start. Eventually, it was moved to mid-October to escape the heat. That has worked reasonably well, although chilly weather and a couple of rainstorms have intervened.
As it is now the fair itself has changed, with Iola Rotary Club taking advantage of its first day, Saturday, to have a barbecue cook-off and car show. Those features would mesh well with Farm-City Days, which all along has had a car show.
Having Farm-City Days to kick off the fair might give it more emphasis and if the two groups responsible were to pool resources, the outcome might be better.
Putting the two together would require some keen planning — it would be appropriate to keep downtown Iola the primary setting on Saturday — but it also would involve more people and ideas.
At the start of Farm-City Days, farm tours were an important part. We’d gotten away from those until this year when Strickler Dairy signed on, and having the event again in summer more farmers might be willing to host a tour. Many are busy in mid-October with fall harvest.
Meanwhile, whether leaving the Veterans Day celebration alone in the fall would increase participation is anyone’s guess.
I don’t think patriotism has waned, and I wonder if the multitude of other activities and mobility has been the culprit. In 1954, when the parade drew so many entries and thousands of people, a journey of a few miles was about as much an undertaking for families — most larger than today’s — as a dash off to Kansas City is today.
The Veterans Day event also may be cyclical. It was big in the years after World War I and then again after World War II and during the halcyon days of the 1950s. But, it finally fell aside here just prior to when fighting in Vietnam War heated up and became largely unpopular.
That its revival was coincidental to conflicts in the Middle East probably wasn’t by accident.
Veterans Day of yesteryear a big draw
