A Dandy in Madera

They put on another Old Timers Day Parade in Madera this past Saturday.  In a related story, I dressed up as a Victorian dandy.

Now that I have your attention, I hope, let’s move on.  First — the parade. They’ve been having one in honor of Old Timers for more than 90 years in Madera, and somehow this was only the first one I’d attended.

No excuses — except, well, we’ve been busy — mostly moving all over the nation and living here and there and everywhere –until we finally settled in Madera County a couple of years ago.

So naturally, this being my first time to attend the parade — it rained. It hadn’t rained on any parade on Old Timers Day for more than three decades, but no matter — this past Saturday, here it came.

And the good news is — that wet stuff did not stop those who marched in the parade or those who showed up to watch it. Of course, the parade had what these things usually have — people riding horses, people riding in vehicles, marching bands. You know the drill.

The route took parade participants several blocks down Yosemite Avenue — through the heart of Madera’s early-days downtown — and ended near the historic Madera County Courthouse and Courthouse Park. There, dozens of vendors had set up their food tents and wagons.  And though it was still drizzling at parade’s end, it did not stop spectators and marchers from rushing into the park for lunch.

Our role in this — and by “our,” I mean the Madera County Historical Society — which runs the museum that was lovingly installed inside the then-abandoned courthouse in the 1970’s — was to open our doors so that anyone could visit after they’d eaten.

Several of our docents — including yours truly — had volunteered to help visitors in any way we could.  Our society curator Karen Elmore — who always makes her own unique outfits for these annual Old Timers events — had kindly offered to deck me out as a Victorian dandy.

But what, exactly, should a Victorian dandy look like?  I had only a hazy notion, but I was game to find out because — well, because why not? So Karen looked into her vast collection of outfits of all kinds that she’s preserved in the museum — and pulled out an old tux jacket, along with an accompanying shirt, tie and top hat. The tie came off our saloon mannequin named Chester.  I must say, it all made me feel like quite a dandy — whatever that’s supposed to feel like. When someone took our picture at the bottom of the old courthouse stairs on the first floor, we tried quite hard not to look like that Iowa farmer couple in the famous Grant Wood painting.

Since it had been raining, we had no idea how many folks might pay us a visit. Turns out — lots. At least five dozen people showed up.  Another volunteer — Terri De La Guerra — joined me at the greeting table near the courthouse front door to welcome our visitors.  (Karen had gone upstairs to guide whoever wandered up there.)

The good news is — most of those who came to see us on Saturday were young couples with families.  That’s what we were hoping for because our historical society — like almost every other such group in the nation — is run by people who have, yes, loved history — but for a very, very long time.

That means we’re old, and not getting any younger.  We desperately need new blood — lots of it — preferably people in their 30’s and 40’s — or even 50’s — to come in — learn what we do — and take over.

Just as one example — we have only enough docents to open our museum to the public on Sunday afternoons.  We obviously need more.

We’re trying to get them. In an effort to generate interest among young people — and their parents — we have an excellent arrangement with the Madera School District for every third-grader to tour our magnificent old courthouse with their teachers.

The hope is that those tours will spark enough interest for the parents come back and work with us — the sooner the better — and for the kids to begin what we hope will be a life-long interest in preserving their community’s past.

Many of the folks who came to see us on Saturday had never been inside the museum before.  That’s good. We hope what they saw excited them enough to return — or, at least, to tell others about us.

So, yes.  We had rain on Old Timers’ Day.   But we got to meet new people and have plenty of fun — and I got to wear Chester’s tie.  All in all — from this Victorian dandy’s viewpoint — it was an excellent Saturday afternoon in the life of the world.