Let the good old times roll
<p>Jace Matt, 8, mans the front line of the rope pull contest. He and his friends, including Jack Rodgiro, were eventually pulled into the mud pit, but the boys seemed to enjoy getting the chance to cool off.</p>
ST. IGNATIUS — Everywhere you looked there was another opportunity for fun.
Standing by the snack-laden tables under the pavilion and gazing out at the fairgrounds, there were Good Old Days activities as far as the eye could see. To the left, a giant slide and an inflatable bounce house; to the right, races, a ring-toss and the trout pond; beyond that, the event’s centerpiece — the tug of war.
By early Saturday afternoon, a mob of over one hundred had encircled the eight-foot-long mud pit. Many of them were already covered in sludge, some from head-to-foot. Others watched and cheered from a safe distance.
“I got comments about it all through Saturday night,” said Janice Richter, an eight-year veteran of leading the team that organizes Good Old Days. “We definitely had a big success with that one.”
Richter said that this is the first year Good Old Days has featured a tug-of-war, but rowdy, messy fun may be exactly what the event needs: Saturday’s crowd was the largest in years.
For those who didn’t bring a change of clothes, the festival still featured a host of more traditional, and cleaner, opportunities for fun including rides, games, prizes and a 5K fun run. Richter said the parade, a Good Old Days staple, was particularly large and well-attended this year.
Saturday’s sunshine and mid-80s temperatures reappeared Sunday afternoon, as did the impressive turnout. According to Mike Kueffler, an event organizer, more than 600 people showed up to chow down at the pancake breakfast, held Sunday morning.
Many of those folks stuck around for the afternoon fly-in, which featured 44 different aircrafts and 56 representatives from the Montana Civil Air Patrol.
More important than any numbers, Good Old Days once again fulfilled its core purpose: community fellowship.
“We’re so grateful to the community for coming out and enjoying the weekend,” Richter said. “We organize this to give back to community, to get people together and hopefully to let them have a good time.”