Our town had its 2000 Homecoming celebrations this past weekend. The three days were full of things to do.
Friday was our annual Gopher Days celebration put on by the Board of Trade. There were loonie burgers at the co-op, hot dogs at the catering shop, lemonade and popcorn at the credit union and ice cream cones at the bank.
Stores had specials all day and we ran the first two of our nine gopher races on Main Street.
In case you didn’t know, our town of Eston, Sask., is famous for its World Gopher Derby held every July 1 for more than 20 years. It is sponsored by the Lions Club.
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After two races on Friday we had gopher birthday cake in honor of the derby and homecoming and just because it seemed like a good idea. Somehow a celebration is not a celebration without cake.
Friday evening we had our opening ceremonies in the former hospital building, which many attended just to walk the halls again and reminisce.
One woman recalled having every one of her seven babies in that building, and every one of the seven had their tonsils and adenoids taken out there.
Saturday started with a pancake breakfast followed by the July 1 parade, and then it was off to the fairgrounds for baseball, an antique tractor pull, a demolition derby and a look at the display booths in the rink lobby.
The evening saw two performances by Saskatchewan Express, two dances and fireworks.
Sunday was a day for homecoming tours – to local cemeteries, the museum, the large private museum just outside town and to the regional park. The legion had an open house and there was a special celebration for the more than 200 babies born in the Legion Hall when it served as a hospital after a fire at the town hospital in the early 1950s.
Putting on an event like this takes a lot of manpower. One man got a crew together to build a stage for Saskatchewan Express and, if that wasn’t enough, he was sent out to mark off campsites. He couldn’t find any lime, so he emptied his wife’s flour bin.
We weren’t sure, had it rained, whether there would be dough or old-fashioned paste decorating the grounds.
When parade time rolled around we still hadn’t had time to wash our vehicle.
There we were, in the homecoming parade, with a muddy vehicle amid clean and polished cars and trucks.
Our sign read: “The Press Review goes through rain and snow, sleet and mud to get the news to you.”
It was a cop out but sometimes you just have to do the best you can.
