Cruisin' Harrington

This past Saturday was our little town's spring festival called "Cruisin' Harrington".  Alan, at the Studebaker garage, conceived of the idea six years ago and the festival has grown steadily.  It started out primarily as a car show, but has evolved to include vendors in the Legion Hall, a quilt show in the Opera House and more!

We all woke up to rain Saturday morning, but by 10:30 the clouds cleared and the day was pleasant and bright.

Here are a few images to give you a feel for the day.

Cars line the main drag of our town for two and a half blocks, on both side!  Plus the parking lot on the north side of the Ford Garage is packed full.  The Ford Garage is now known as the Studebaker Garage, but us old timers still call it the Ford Garage!

This is a '55 Ford.  I loved this pick up, even if the colors aren't original.

Now this is a gem.  It's a 1926 Studebaker.   It won all kinds of awards at the show.

These were engines that almost anyone could work on!  Not like today!!

You can't tell from this image, so you'll just have to trust me when I say that these are wooden spokes on the 1926 Studebaker!

Of course this orange Charger caught my eye, since orange is my favorite color!

Entrance to the Opera House quilt show.

The bright pink quilt is one that I made for a very special young lady that is graduating high school this year.  Need to get in the mail this week!

The Opera House rummage sale, where a person can get in to a whole lot of trouble!

There were tours of the Lincoln Hotel, which is being renovated.  Super cool!

A sign alerting folks to the vendors selling their wares in the Legion Hall.  

This photo is more exciting than it looks!  Jay and Carrie bought the old tavern and have plans to renovate.  You can see that the demolition has begun.  My great uncle used to run "the pool hall" as grandma used to call it.  I can't wait for it to be restored to it's former self.

And a couple doors down, Heather and Justin have purchased the "old Post Office" building and have great plans for it.

They were selling t-shirts and caps that have our zip code and the words "Harrington Washington" that looked like a cancelled envelope.  I bought a t-shirt!

Here I am walking in front of the Lincoln Hotel!  Orange sweatshirt and orange Chuck Taylor's!

Reynald is feeling a little better.  At least enough better to join me on the porch for sunset.

And what a glorious sunset it was.

There are some exciting things happening in Harrington these days.  Some folks are taking initiative to revitalize our once vital town.  It was on  the verge of extinction but now there is hope that we can capitalize on the character and charm of our old buildings and bring back some of the long gone businesses that once thrived.  We have neat architecture, small town hospitality and some much needed new energy moving our small town forward.  The future looks bright!