Centennial aftermath

It was a good idea, but the Bonner County Centennial celebration at the fairgrounds this weekend barely sputtered to life. After arriving about half an hour after the 9 a.m. opening to find four cars in the parking lot, I detected my first hint that yesterday's event wasn't going to be a sell-out----and it was free.

As I walked through the door to the main exhibit building, an American Legion member greeted me with the great news that they'd had one person show up at the flag raising ceremony yesterday morning. I learned later that the sole audience member for two days of flag raising was county commissioner Louie Rich.

Since it would be a while before Amie, my publicist from Keokee, showed up at the Keokee booth, I decided to walk around and see what was happening. I saw tables with empty chairs and an occasional person in a booth. I met Paul Rechnitzer and his wife sitting at the Bonner County Historical Booth.

They still maintained a healthy sense of humor after having sat in the booth all day Friday and catering to one visitor---a local newspaper reporter who was looking for some action. Since she couldn't find any, she interviewed Paul extensively. Paul lucked out in the publicity department with lots of information about his upcoming book.

Museum curator Ann Ferguson showed up during our visit to set up a video at the museum booth. While we talked, we kept seeing a tall man walking around pulling his suitcase. He appeared lost, which is a bit hard to do in that main exhibit building, but he wasn't having too much luck at finding anyone to tell him to where he needed to go.

Finally, I saw one of the event organizers directing him over to the table near the main doors where Rhonda, another organizer, had told me the day before that I could set up for my reading. They'd provided a podium, but I told Rhonda I needed a table because of the large history books I'd be using for my presentation. She assured me that the table near the door would be just perfect.

The man emptied his suitcase onto the table and set up a television set. Seeing that, I figured I'd better find out what Plan B was for my reading. I was told by the organizer to use the podium provided. When I said I needed more space for my materials, I was told to take the table out of the Keokee booth, where Amie had stacked all the Keokee books and Sandpoint Magazines for display, and use it for my reading.

Then, I asked where I was supposed to do my presentation. She told me to set up just inside the doorway where I could attract people. I said that might be a bit distracting during my reading. She didn't seem to mind. So, I went on my way to the Keokee booth and noticed that the television at the table where I was supposed to be was playing Kalispel Indian powwow dancing. With all due respect to the Kalispels, I figured I'd have to talk pretty loud to drown that out.

A little later, the organizer came by and told us that we could use a table in the storage room. So, Amie and I set up a table and a dozen chairs. At 11 a.m. two women sat in my audience, so I summoned people who were sitting at other booths, not seeing a lot of action, and told 'em to come on over, sit in the chairs for a picture and make it look like we had a crowd.

A couple of booth people actually stayed for the whole presentation. The rest of the audience consisted of unsuspecting souls (very few) who came through the big doors during my hour-long presentation. I yelled at them (with a humorous tone, of course), told them they were late and to please sit down. Some did. Some got up right away and hurried on their way. Some stayed.

My audience turned out to be a lot of fun. They seemed to enjoy the presentation, and the Converse crowd from Sagle was among them. The Converses took home the only book from the reading/signing, and that copy had already spoken for through a gift certificate purchased by Brett's sister several months ago. We made the most of a pretty vacant celebration, but to say I was disappointed in the county's designated 100-year anniversary blow-out would be understating an understatement.

The Holly Barn Dedication, et. al., however, was a different story. A crowd filled the new barn to nearly two thirds full to dine on dollar hamburgers and hotdogs and $1.50 pieces of pie. Three longtimers, Corny Poelstra, Bud Lang, Sr. and Francis McNall received plaques and recognition as the county's oldest dairyman, bull of the woods, and beef man, respectively.

The actual dedication went quite well, and folks were pretty impressed with Bill's harmonica playing. The barn stands as an impressive memorial for a young lady who definitely touched a lot of hearts during her 14 years on this earth. Yesterday would have been Holly's 19th birthday. So, the gift of the barn with its ceremonial key to the fairgrounds was even more poignant.

Both Bill and I felt honored to play a part in the program. It was definitely a great success.

It's too bad the Centennial celebration overall didn't have more participation. I don't know if it's a reflection of the times, if it occurred at a bad time when too many other weekend events were drawing people, or if the event could have used a lot more publicity.

We still can't understand why the Centennial wasn't incorporated into this year's Bonner County Fair---the one event each year that automatically unites the entire county. We thought that idea was a no brainer. This year's Bonner County Fair does not even honor the county centennial theme. The reasoning: the fair is not 100 years old.

Huh?

We're scratching our heads about this logic, as are a lot of others, but figure we must be suffering some flaw in our own logic? Oh, well, the organizers have another hundred years to think up a bigger, better county Centennial celebration, and we probably won't have to worry about that one.