FORESTVILLE - Forestville's Farm Festival concluded on Sunday afternoon. A parade was one of the highlights of the activities held on Sunday.
Forestville Middle School and Forestville High School band members wore plastic rain coats over their uniforms, but still showed great spirit while marching. Forestville school cheerleaders demonstrated their community spirit; antique tractors and cars motored up the street; and the fire department brought its equipment out. Children scrambled for the candy thrown out to the spectators.
The cheerleaders placed first in the parade and Don Manning, who had a car load of antique steel pedal cars, placed second.
Article Photos
OBSERVER Photos by Diane R. Chodan
Top:Tom Woodward demonstrates how a mechanical apple peeler (dated 1889) makes quick work of peeling.
Above: Abilene Green, 6, from Pine Valley, who said she was a vampire, paints a pumpkin at the Forestville Fall Festival. Pumpkins for painting were donated by Hamlet Farm in Sheridan.
As part of the festivities, community members were invited to build scarecrows on Main Street. Mike and Jamie Burger's scarey creation, with a pumpkin for a head, was awarded first place. Tom and Carol Woodward's creation received second place. It seemed to use its skeleton hands to direct traffic up Park Street to Forestville High School where many of the vendors and activities were located.
Children were busy painting pumpkins, or getting their own faces painted, in one part of the school. Hamlet Farm in Sheridan donated the pumpkins, so this was a free activity. Village Trustee and School Board member Carol Woodward said, "Hamlet Farm is always generous to us."
Abilene Green, 6, from Pine Valley was creating her own special pumpkin masterpiece. She didn't mind that her picture was taken because she was a vampire and the picture wouldn't show anyhow.
In another area, Denise Cervola, the proprietor of Shadow Hoops, was demonstrating the use of hula hoops for exercise. Allison Miller tried to keep a smaller hoop going with encouragement from Cervola. Most of the hoops were adult sized and weighted.
Cervola said the hoops are an aid to fitness "I didn't diet or lose weight, but I did lose 2 inches on my waist,"she said.
Elsewhere, Tom Woodward demonstrated the use of a large apple corer and peeler that was made in 1889.
"Watch carefully," he said, "This peels quickly." In a few seconds an apple was cored and peeled. Edwin Hamlet picked up the apple and handed it to his daughter, Sophia, who apparently loves apples.
Firefighter Jared Woolley had a table of information and freebies from the fire department. He explained that the sticker to find children should be placed in the house under the door knob of the child's room rather than in a window. "We don't want child predators to see it," he said.
Village Trustee Beth Bowker had results of Saturday's cupcake competition. "There was a furious cupcake battle. Eleven different kinds were submitted. One was caramelized bacon with maple sauce. Another was panda bear cupcakes. ... The cupcakes were auctioned off afterward."
The bidding was competitive. The judges awarded first place to Kerrie Pelletter, second to Melonie Stott, and third to Heather Snyder.
The festival featured a craft show each day. An interesting demonstration there was a "Barnes Velocipede School Saw." Jerry Fancher owns the device and his son William was creating small wooden toys with it. The device looks like a bicycle with a small saw at the end. The person peddles the cycle to power the saw.
Jerry said, "I have had this saw for about 10 years. I had to put it back together and order some parts. I have been doing woodworking for some time."
His business is woodcrafts and small signs. The designs were quite intricate.
Bowker also looking at the display said, "These are the kind of things you won't see elsewhere. We like to encourage these things. That's why we love our small village."
Comments on this article may be directed to dchodan@observertoday.com
