by Justin Gibson | Jun 10, 2018 | Community, Schoolcraft, Vicksburg
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The Fulton Memorial Day parade annually draws a large crowd including these big dogs who were caught jockeying for the best seat at the parade on a very hot day.
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Children line up early to ride their decorated bicycles the quarter mile down 42nd street in the Fulton Memorial Day parade.
Vicksburg
6/8 – Fri. Cruise Night 1950s Drive In downtown Vicksburg. 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.
6/8, 6/9, & 6/11 – Fri., Sat., & Mon. Book Sale at the Vicksburg District Library. 10 a.m. – 5 p.m. on Thurs. & Fri., 10 a.m. – 1 p.m. on Mon.
6/9 – Sat. 35th Annual Vicksburg Car Show in downtown Vicksburg. 9 a.m. – 4 p.m.
6/15 – Fri. VCS Band Blood Drive at Vicksburg High School. Vicksburg Bands earns $10 for each person who attempts to give blood. To make an appointment, email boroark@vicksburgschools.org. 1 p.m. – 7 p.m.
6/15 – Fri. Coffeehouse Concert: Dani Jamerson at the Vicksburg Community Center. Snacks and drinks available. Tickets $7 and can be purchased in the Vicksburg Cultural Arts Center or online at http://www.vicksburgarts.com. Doors open at 6:30 p.m., concert starts at 7 p.m.
6/25 – 6/29 – Mon. – Fri. Arts In The Burg Summer Day Camp at the Vicksburg Community Center. For more information, email info@vicksburgarts.com
6/27 – Wed. Writer’s Round Table at the Vicksburg District Library. 1 p.m. – 2 p.m.
6/27 – Wed. Geek Out! Teen Summer Reading Program at the Vicksburg District Library. 6:30 p.m. – 8 p.m. For more information or to register visit http://www.vicksburglibrary.org.
7/5 – Thurs. Adult Book Club at the Vicksburg District Library. 9 a.m. – 10 a.m.
Schoolcraft
6/6 – Wed. Adult Book Club at the Schoolcraft Community Library. Begins 2 p.m.
6/20 & 6/27 – Wed. Paws and Pages Story Time at the Schoolcraft Community Library. For Pre-K and kindergarteners. 1 p.m. – 1:20 p.m. Registration Required.
6/20 – 6/21, & 6/27 – 6/28 – Wed. & Thurs. Tales to Tails at the Schoolcraft Community Library. Kids first grade and up can read to a therapy dog. Registration Required.
6/27 – Wed. Movie and Popcorn for Kids at the Schoolcraft Community Library. For kindergarten through 5th graders. 1 p.m. – 3 p.m.
6/29 – Fri. Teen Cupcake Decorating at the Schoolcraft Community Library. For grades 6 – 12. Registration Required
7/4 – 4th of July Schoolcraft annual celebration.
by Justin Gibson | Jun 8, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
A group from the Antique Tractor organization cook bean soup the old-fashioned way.
By Sue Moore
Thousands of people troop to Vicksburg in new cars to see the hundreds of old cars filling the parking slots on Main and Prairie Streets each year. The 38th year of the Old Car Festival on Saturday, June 9 will be preceded by the usual Cruise Night in the early evening Friday, rain or shine.
Skip and Carol Knowles assisted by a crew of volunteers make things happen both days. There is a judging by anyone visiting and walking the streets. They can vote on which car is the best in its category, with prizes awarded Saturday about 3 p.m.
To keep folks entertained, the Vicksburg High School jazz bands will perform at the four corners of downtown during the early afternoon. There will be an arts and crafts show in Clark Park, where there is shade and usually a nice breeze. There are food vendors with elephant ears, cotton candy and other treats to sell along with local churches and nonprofit organizations offering specialty foods. People seem to flock to Apple Knockers for ice cream and enjoy its rendition of a hot dog eating contest at 2 p.m. in their parking lot on W. Prairie Street. The annual Duck Derby in Clark Park takes place at 12 p.m. and there will be old time tractor displays at the Vicksburg Historic Village on Richardson Street. Hobo bean soup will be for sale there.
Friday night is for souped up street rods, but lots of other shapes and models of old cars seem to show up too. There is a book sale at the Vicksburg District Library on S. Michigan Avenue that runs Friday and Saturday.
Although rain has been threatened several years, the only year the Festival was greeted with a deluge was the very first event of this kind in 1980. It seems that the second Saturday in June is one whose weather is predictable, said Knowles.
by Justin Gibson | Jun 8, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
The Gilmore Car Museum, located north of Richland, has often supported the Vicksburg Old Car Festival with cars on loan from its immense historic collection of old-time vehicles. This year it has honored the Vicksburg event on Saturday, June 8 with one of its vintage cars, a 1910 Brush Runabout. It will be the center of the display of old cars at the corner of Main and Prairie streets in Vicksburg.
The Brush Motor Car Company was formed in 1907 by Alan P. Brush, one of the early auto pioneers in Detroit. The company was reformed in 1910 as the Brush Runabout Company. In 1913, with the backing of Frank and Benjamin Briscoe, it became the United States Motor Company. With the onset of the Ford Motor Company, the newly formed company failed in 1914. The total production of Brush Runabout from 1907 to 1913 has been estimated to be 13,250 units. As with many early auto pioneers, the Brush enjoyed great success but was short-lived with the development of mass production and changing technologies.
The Brush Runabout was a light open cockpit two-passenger car. It was powered by a single cylinder 12 HP engine with a chain drive to a rear wheel. It is unique as both the front and rear axles were made out of wood and it was sold with solid rubber tires. The cost at its introduction in 1907 was $780, but by 1908 competition had driven the price down to less than $500. By 1912 the company introduced a stripped-down version of the car called the Liberty Brush, which sold for only $350.
One of the most interesting stories of the Brush Motor Company was a unique trip taken by the Abernathy Kids in 1910. Louis and Temple Abernathy, then ages 6 and 9, were known for their many unique long-distance adventures. That year, the boys rode horseback,unescorted, from Oklahoma to New York City, then returned to Oklahoma driving a Brush Runabout, a trip estimated at 2,500 miles. Large crowds met and greeted these two adventurous kids along the way. They met President Taft in Washington on their way to New York and then met former President Teddy Roosevelt upon their arrival in New York City.
Brush advertising used the adventure many times in their promotional materials, noting that the operation of this motor car was so simple that these two young boys were able to operate the Brush by themselves. It is said that local Brush dealers met them along the way as they came into their town and provided accommodations, fuel and service if needed.
The Abernathy family from Frederick, Oklahoma had become friends with Teddy Roosevelt due to the notoriety of their father, Jack Abernathy, for his ability to catch wolves alive with his hands. Roosevelt, a consummate outdoorsman, had heard of this unique ability and in 1905 Jack Abernathy invited then President Roosevelt to his home town where he took them on a successful hunt, including catching a live wolf bare handed. At that time Oklahoma was a U.S. territory. Roosevelt later appointed the father a U.S. marshal.
by Justin Gibson | Jun 8, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
The classic Studebaker Champion Taxi Cab.
Larry Gardon, a longtime friend of the Vicksburg Old Car Festival, comes to the show every year from his home in Quincy. He has presented several of his cars as special guest cars, among them a Divco Milk Truck, Studebaker Golden Hawk and his all-original 1919 Studebaker Touring car which had been put away and not driven since the 1930s.
Gardon is an exceptional old car collector and has done several high-quality restorations of unique vehicles.
This year he will be presenting his freshly restored 1940 Studebaker Champion Taxi Cab. Studebaker was produced not far from Vicksburg in South Bend, Ind.
Gardon’s car is painted in the classic cab yellow with burgundy fenders and plain naugahyde interior for commercial use. It is equipped with all the equipment and trappings of a pre-war taxi. It will be on display at the corner of Main and Prairie streets on Saturday, June 8.
by Justin Gibson | Jun 8, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
By Sue Moore
Kids can have lots of excitement watching their rubber ducky float down the waterway in Clark Park during the Old Car Festival each year. It’s especially enticing because there are prizes awarded to the winning duck owner, sponsored by the Vicksburg Community Schools Foundation.
The first heat jets off at 12 p.m. with several more to follow because there are hundreds of tickets sold throughout the school and to the public. The tickets are $5 bucks each and can be purchased from the Foundation’s booth on Prairie Street on Saturday before the race. It’s a fundraiser for the School Foundation and yet provides plenty of thrills as the rubber ducks represent one ticket sold, getting caught up in the weeds along the way or a curve in the creek that winds through Clark Park.
It’s also a cooling respite during a day of walking through the downtown lined with cars as they bake in the hot sun. A contest is held annually at each elementary school for the classroom that sells the most tickets because the winner gets an additional treat of an ice cream day just before school gets out in June.
This year the Foundation awarded $33,000 in scholarships to deserving seniors in the class of 2018. It also supports curiosity grants to students in the classroom throughout the school year. It awards $10,000 in Bardeen grants to teachers for instructional experiences that would not ordinarily be paid for by the school system.
by Justin Gibson | Jun 8, 2018 | Community, Vicksburg
The regulars who help categorize the donated books each week for the library book sale are left to right: Ruth Lange, Dortha Bratt, Gail Reisterer, Billie Gale Hayward, Mary Ann Hayward.
By Sue Moore
Over 2,000 books are generously donated from the community for the Vicksburg District Library’s annual book sale, according to Gail Reisterer, mastermind behind organizing the cache of books each year.
The sale coincides with Vicksburg’s Old Car Festival each year, taking advantage of the large influx of visitors to the village. It begins on Friday morning, June 8 at 10 a.m. with book sellers and buyers lined up outside the library as they know a good deal can be had each year. The sale opens at 10 a.m. Saturday and continues until 5 p.m., when Reisterer hopes that more than $2,000 will have been raised to buy new books for the children’s library.
On Monday morning, June 11, another line will form to scoop up many of the remaining books at a price of $2 for all the books a person can stuff into a plastic grocery bag.
Despite the sales and the many volunteers who categorize the books each week during the year, Reisterer is concerned about how much longer the sale can survive. The sale peaked in 2010, when the fund reaped $3,204. It has been decreasing steadily ever since. She attributes that to a decline in interest in books generally.
“People still like to read an actual book, me included. But I can see how convenient it is to carry a book around on a Kindle or iPad. It’s just not the way I want to read and I’m hoping others feel the same way so we can keep this tradition alive.”
Getting ready for the book sale is an ongoing labor of love for five women Reisterer has recruited over the years. They meet every Tuesday morning in a downstairs alcove of the library, after some of them play bridge.
Most paperbacks are 25 cents; hardcovers are 50 cents. Newer books may be priced higher and are then categorized in genres. That way, a buyer can easily find their favorite read.
A few days before the actual sale, all the books are lined up on tables in the library basement. Directional signs are hung, volunteers are contacted by Reisterer for shifts of two hours and doors are finally flung open for the treasure hunters to dig in. “Nobody goes away unhappy,” she said. “It’s lots of work but well worth it.”
