MIDDLETOWN — Past and present collided on Saturday morning, as a Western saloon floated down Highway 29 on the back of a flatbed truck, painted with signs advertising free WI-fi.
The saloon, part of a miniature frontier town designed and built by the Middletown Area Merchants Association, won best organization-built float in the 50th annual Middletown Days Parade, a Western-themed community celebration and fundraiser for the Middletown Central Park Association.
Mexican cowboys, classic cars and antique farm equipment cruised down the half-mile parade route through the heart of Middletown. The 49 parade participants were lead by former Middletown Days pageant queens in honor of the parade”s 50th year, said co-director Susie Knowles, herself a former queen.
“We do what we do because we grew up doing it,” Knowles said. “Everybody here grew up together.”
After the parade, the celebration moved to Middletown Central Park, which played host to a rodeo, a karaoke competition, and 34 vendors selling curly fries, shaved ice and three kinds of funnel cake to an estimated 2,000 festival attendees.
At the karaoke competition, three generations of Middletown residents shared the both the small stage and a single musical genre: Country. The 6 and 7-year-olds who belted out verses from Taylor Swift and Miley Cyrus songs were followed by the adults, including a 63 year-old man in full western attire who sang Johnny Cash”s 1959 hit, “Folsom Prison Blues.”
The country-western musical theme is representative of Middletown”s rural heritage, said Mike Guarniero, who directed the karaoke competition.
“This is their roots,” he said.
The karaoke competition, while fun, is by no means the best thing at Middletown Days, said Eric Patrick, a former radio host who served as the festival”s parade announcer. The best event, dubbed “mutton busting,” is a rodeo show in which toddlers ride bucking goats, he said.
“It”s like bull riding for 3-year-olds,” Patrick said.
This year”s rodeo, which was opened by this year”s Middletown Days queen Kelly Munk and her horse Linus, was an all-day affair with 12 separate events, including calf branding, steer daubing, and wild cow milking.
After collecting dues from the vendors, money from food sales and admission fees to the Middletown Days starlight dance, the Central Park Association made an approximate $15,000 profit from the event last year, said Heather DeBerry, the association”s president.
Though it took six hectic months to organize the Middletown Days, the time and effort is more than justified by bringing the people of Middletown closer together to DeBerry, Knowles, and their army of volunteers.
“If it wasn”t for our parents who taught us about community service, Middletown Days wouldn”t be here,” Knowles said.
