Ah, Heritage Days. A week of great food, spectacular live entertainment, unique events for every interest, and great food. (I mentioned great food twice, I know. I stand by it.)
Heritage Days is still fun for me every year, even the years when I find myself hosting things more than doing things. So I thought I would share five things I loved about this year’s celebration, and five things I remember with great fondness from the previous 23 Heritage Days celebrations.
Best Of This Year: Live Broadcast From Alliance Chamber Of Commerce. Many years ago, KCOW would do a four-hour live Heritage Days broadcast outdoors, in front of our since departed “big red truck.” Back when the Essays owned the Pepsi bottling company, we could always rely on having an abundance of ice-cold soft drinks for us and anybody who stopped by to say hello. As the years went by, the sodas disappeared, the red truck disappeared, and I began to realize that I am useless in the heat. So I made an executive decision to move our annual Heritage Days remote indoors, in the air conditioned confines of the Alliance Chamber office. With one exception or two, we’ve done it that way ever since. I think it is the smartest decision I ever made for my own preservation.
So this year Herr Kroheim and I did a great show–thanks not to us but to the nice folks who gave us some of their time to chat. We had a couple of Alliance High School band members discuss their herculean fund-raising efforts to get the band to Atlanta for the Peach Bowl, where they will perform and compete with other scholastic bands. We also had a chance to introduce our new Alliance Chamber of Commerce director, Owen Burnett. I love doing this remote every year because it’s purely community focused…live and local, just the way we like it. (It’s also fun to tell old Heritage Days stories and engage in verbal sparring with Krohe.)
Best Of This Year: Bands On The Bricks. Kalin and I have been emcees for Bands on the Bricks for most of its run, and we both take pride in being asked. We try to concoct little bits of humorous business for our intros so it isn’t just a roll call of sponsors (can’t thank them enough!). Doing the host gig is great fun, and also–duh–we get to experience amazing live music. This year’s Heritage Days Friday spotlighted local acts including Herr Kroheim and Shon Townsend. And both nights featured fantastic touring bands including Victory Underground, Float Like A Buffalo, and Alliance native Tanner Johns.
Best Of This Year: Heritage Days Parade. So, last year, our broadcast of the Heritage Days parade was what the youths might call a dumpster fire. And it was 87% my fault. I’ve been in therapy for the last year trying to work through it (kidding!). This year, everything went as smooth as humanly possible. I should note that I am being dragged kicking and screaming into the 21st century because we now do the parade on the radio and as a live video on our website. I had to stand in front of the video camera to welcome everyone to the parade. Thanks to our video producer Rob for using that expensive shatter-proof lens on his camera. I am a radio person and should be heard, not seen. But if you’re sick enough to wanna see me:
I have been doing the Heritage Days parade for 24 years. Oop, 23 years. One year I was on a float for a Main Street Players show. But anyway, in doing the parade so many times, one learns things. And so, should you ever have to announce a parade on the radio (or video, or both) here is my list of immovable truths:
- Start Time Will Never Be 10:00am On The Nose. It will be sometimes between 10:00am and the end of human existence.
- You will rarely, if ever, have time to read the complete “talk card” for each parade entry. Some of the writers of these things should consider attempting the great American novel.
- Entries will not show up. Entries will show up out of order. Entries will show up that you don’t have a talk card for. Be versatile!
- The end of the parade, a long, long cavalcade of EMT, fire and police vehicles, will give you the ultimate test of your ad libbing skills. One year I think I recited a Ralph Waldo Emerson poem to fill the time, every other stanza accentuated by fire horns and police whistles.
Should you get the idea that these things make broadcasting the parade unpleasant or difficult, cast those thoughts aside. We kid that which we love.
That’s me using my black jacket to keep the sun out of my laptop screen, so I can see what’s going on.
Best Of This Year: Dippin Dots. And french fries. And pulled pork. Oh my God, the pulled pork was good. My compliments to the chefs.
Best Of This Year: Stunt Photography. I still have enough stomach resilience to go on a couple of carnival rides every year. And I like to take photos from the rides, slightly risky though it may be.
And now: Best Of The Past.
Best Of The Past: Main Street Players Performances. In 1999, I became a member of Alliance’s community theater group. For a long run of years, we performed an interactive murder mystery each year during Heritage Days week. There were usually two performances, which combined with rehearsals made Heritage Days a very busy time! But I was 15 or 20 years younger then. I can’t pick a favorite of the many shows we did, but I have a personal fondness for one which I wrote: “Murder On Gilligan’s Island.” My pal Dave Kuskie played Gilligan, dyeing his hair black for the part. Now that’s commitment! My Mom and Dad happened to be making one of their annual trips to visit me in Alliance, so they got to see my moment in the spotlight, both as playwright and as Thurston Howell III. The picture below is not from the Gilligan play, but one of the other many murder mysteries we staged.
Best Of The Past: The Ol’ Gong Show. This was truly one of the most enjoyable emcee gigs I have ever had the good fortune to get. Doing each year’s show in character as “Chuckie Baby”, game show impresario Chuck Barris gave me the freedom to drop jokes a little spicier than my usual morning show chat, and generally act the fool. Even so, I was still the rock of gibraltar next to the three judges (more often than not fortified by drink) and the wild and crazy contestants. It was just absolutely awesome. Heritage Days events have their natural lifespan; we no longer have the “Miss Flame Pageant” or other events introduced in the same era. And that’s okay. But if they decided to bring The Gong Show back just one more year….one last blast…I’d dig out my nerd glasses, assemble a bunch of goofy hats and be ready to do it again!
That’s a very Jack Benny look I’m giving there…the thick glasses help.
Best Of The Past: Kiwanis Corn. The only food booth I genuinely miss every year. From a Facebook post of mine, July 22 2010:
Heritage Days is in full swing! Time for me to go downtown for some homemade french fries, KAB funnel cake, and–of course–some Kiwanis corn-on-the-cob, as advertised by the giant picture of “Happy Corn Boy”, holding his ear of corn like a carrot and giddy with corn happiness.
Best Of The Past: Carnival Rides Conveniently Located Near Bars. In my earliest years in Alliance, the Frasier Shows Carnival actually spread all the way down the bricks of the old Butte. Which meant there were rides right in front of Players Sports Bar, Sandhillers Saloon and whatever other saloons were there at the time. Now I know, that seems a bit odd…but I’m telling you, the ferris wheel was the best ride of them all back then. Because you would get to the very top of the wheel and see this incredible view of Alliance….I wish I’d brought whatever ancient times camera I had back then to get a good picture of that view.
Best Of The Past: Chuckie Night at Martin’s Restaurant. This happened, to my recollection, twice. After doing the live Heritage Days remote Friday afternoon, Kalin, Jeremy Fifield and I would go to Martin’s Restaurant. Matt, the proprietor, had Chuck Biegler on hand to play and sing for the crowd. The boys and I would dig in to those fantastic Martin’s Restaurant tacos, and I would ask Chuckie to play “Moon RIver.” This was before Bands On The Bricks came around, and was a quiet, low-key way to wrap up Heritage Days Friday. I miss it. As do I miss Chuck Biegler, who left us in 2019; and Martin’s Restaurant, which closed in 2016. There are always the memories.