St. Ignatius festival brings a good old time
By Marla Hall
For the Lake County Leader
As one local fellow put it, “This is the best day of the year in Mission!” Indeed the crowds of people lining the streets and packing the park where the games were held sure looked to be having a great time. Despite the 90 degree temperatures, kids from 0 to almost a century enjoyed both spectating and participating in the annual Good Old Days event.
Though not the theme of the parade, an unofficial theme of “water” seemed to emerge as several of the class floats gleefully shot water from water guns at their friends and family along the route. Those who were doused seemed mostly amused and actually a bit appreciative of the cooling effect of the spray. Perhaps the most impressive group of entries were the numerous tractors—some oldies with their original, hard-earned scars and some refurbished—shining as if they’d just come off the factory floor. The top award getter in the parade was the ‘Star Wars’ entry which provided both heroes and villains floating down the parade route in their fighter space ships.
The games began with a certain crowd favorite—the dog races. The herding dogs really showed their stuff with a mini Australian Shepherd winning the medium sized dog category and a sleek and wickedly fast border collie streaking to glory in the large dog category and also taking the overall fastest dog award. Many other dogs showed great excitement as they sprinted—or in a couple of cases, sniffed, their ways down the grassy alley. The humans then took over the games area with youngsters, teens, and adults competing fiercely in gunny sack races, three legged races, water balloon tossing, and tug-o-war events. Those who didn’t win seemed to have just as much fun—maybe more—than those who were victorious and all definitely entertained the spectators who enjoyed everything from ice cream to ice cold beer as they watched the events and visited with their neighbors and friends.