FairFest-goers find fun in Hastings

As fire truck, horses and Boy Acouts passed before him, Dan Waldron filled out fish orders.

He sat in a lawn chair in front of his pet store, Dan's Pet Palace, and in between marking quantities of pet fish, watched the parade go by.

"I'm not getting a lot of business right now," he said, as his nephew asked him to open a Tootsie Roll.

People lined the streets in downtown Hastings on Saturday, but instead shopping at stores like Dan's, they watched the FairFest Parade. The parade and the Chuckwagon Roundup kick off the Adams County FairFest, which runs Wednesday through Sunday.

Waldron was born and raised in Hastings, and said he remembers attending the parade when he was a child.

"I've always liked watching the old cars," he said.

His nephew, however, was more interested in the candy.

"He's definitely got my sweet tooth," Waldron said, as 5-year-old Richard raced from the curb to Waldron's lawn chair to dump another handful of candy in his uncle's hands.

With an "Unmask the Fun," theme, the FairFest Parade had 65 entries, said entry judge Kenzie Choquette.

"There's lots of candy, lots of people and lots of fun," she said.

After the parade, the FairFest events moved to the Hastings Museum of Natural and Cultural History for the Chuckwagon Roundup. Inside the museum, children participated in dinosaur crafts and activities, said Drew Ceperley, the museum marketing director.

Behind the museum, Highland Park was the site of a barbecue lunch, horse and wagon rides and roping lessons.

Last year, more than 200 people attended the roundup, Ceperley said.

Boy Mignery and the Oregon Trail Rodeo group taught children to rope hay bails with foam cattle heads.

Bob Amyot brought his three children to the event, and told Emily, 10, and Will, 16, he would not buy them lunch until they successfully roped one of the make-shift steers.

 "It's easy once you get the hang of it," Mignery said. "The kids just seem to have trouble swinging the rope without catching it on their own heads.”