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The hour-long parade seemed slow and maybe too wet for some, but there was incentive to stay through to the end: free slices of watermelon.
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Pat Blee, right, cuts watermelon at the Watermelon Fest on Sunday in Kellogg, Minn. (Photo by Paul Solberg/Winona Daily News) |
“It was good,” Missy Stambaugh of Elmwood, Wis., said as she threw away a watermelon rind. She said the slice of fruit was well worth standing in the rain for.
Many derided the rain but nobody ran much farther for cover than nearby trees or a park shelter used earlier in the afternoon for bingo.
Harold Happel of Winona enjoyed a Popsicle among the bingo tables and didn’t let the rain ruin his first trip to the Watermelon Festival. He said it was a lot better than a “dull” picnic happening in Goodview.
Members of the American Legion, the VFW, the Ladies’ Auxiliary, the Wabasha County Sheriff’s Department, and the Kellogg and Wabasha fire departments passed along the avenue, waving and throwing fistfuls of candy to children, who snatched it all up like miniature street sweepers. They faded back into the crowds with shopping bags full of candy, making the parade more lucrative than Halloween.
High school marching bands filled the air with bursts of jolly music including old favorites such as “Low Rider” by War. Floats crawled along carrying volleyball teams, monsters from a haunted house and high school royalty, including this year’s Watermelon Queen.
Carol Dunn, the Watermelon Queen of 1966, said it was always a lot more fun being in the parade when she was 16 than watching it.
“It’s slow and wet,” she said of the 2008 edition.
She and her husband, Bill, own the River Nest Bed and Breakfast in Reads Landing just north of Wabasha and make the drive down to Kellogg for the parade just about every year. Bill said it was pretty good until the rain came, but luckily, he and Carol came prepared with an umbrella.
Immediately after the parade, Pat Blee and his family went to work doing what he’s been doing for more than 30 years: slicing watermelon for hungry parade-goers. They brought 125 watermelons to the party this year and expected to have plenty of leftovers for area nursing and group homes. He said they used to bring more than 200 and would never have any left.
“Free anything is not as big a deal as it used to be,” he said.
Try telling that to 6-year-old Ally Arens, who was among the throng of children hoarding candy. She appeared to thoroughly enjoy getting her pants dirty to pick up taffy and Tootsie Rolls, but when asked what her favorite part of the parade was, she didn’t have a straight answer.
“Um, everything,” she said.
Kevin Behr may be reached at (507) 453-3524 or at kbehr@winonadailynews.com.
