Submitted by Parkersville Heritage Foundation
The third annual Parkersville Day, Saturday, June 1, from noon to 3 pm, offers something for everyone This free family-friendly event is held at Parker’s Landing Historical Park located at 24 A Street, Washougal, adjacent to and on the west side of the Camas-Washougal Port Marina. This year’s event features the local history of Columbia River travel.
Parkersville Day will start with an opening ceremony that honors Chinook history and features a 31-foot Chinook canoe on site. There are fun family games that were played at the park in 1880 with historic candy and event souvenir prizes. Storytellers will bring local history alive with tales of the people and activities that were a part of the rich past of Parkersville. Visitors can join WSU park tours identifying plants and trees, enjoy a display of winners from the Washougal Schools art contest and listen to a performance of the Washougal High School band.
A square dance demonstration is new to the event. The group, Happy Hoppers, was founded in 1959 and is one of the larger clubs in Washington State. Square dancing became vital for generations of Americans up to the late 1800s before falling out of favor. After World War II, square dancing enjoyed participants numbering in the millions and continues to today, boosting fun with health and social benefits.
Also new this year is a Good Humor ice cream pushcart complete with umbrella. “The event always has ice cream to honor the Parker’s Landing Dairy that was there until 1942 around the time of pasteurization,” explained Susan Tripp, event organizer. While the Parker’s Landing Dairy was operating in the early 1920s, confectioner Harry Burt of Youngstown, Ohio created a chocolate coating compatible with ice cream. His daughter told him it tasted great but was too messy to eat. Burt’s son suggested freezing the sticks used for their Jolly Boy Suckers, Burt’s earlier invention, to make a handle for the ice cream treat. Things took off from there.
The Good Humor name reflected the founder’s belief that a person’s humor or temperament was related to the humor of the palate (a.k.a., your sense of taste). Soon after the Good Humor bar was created, Burt outfitted a fleet of twelve street vending trucks with freezers and bells from which to sell his creation. The first set of bells came from his son’s bobsled. Good Humor bars have been sold since then out of everything from tricycles to push carts to trucks. In the early years around 1936, Good Humor men were required to tip their hats to ladies and salute gentlemen. It took three days of training and orientation to become a Good Humor Man. Good Humor started an ice cream revolution with the first ice cream on a stick, and the very first ice cream truck.
Today, one can find Good Humor ice cream at stores locally such as Fred Meyer and Safeway. The ice cream cart at Parkersville Day will offer the Good Humor Chocolate Éclair bar, Creamsicle, and Strawberry Shortcake bars as well as a non-dairy ice cream sandwich, and orange juice bars.
There will be interesting displays at the event staffed by community organizations who have an interest in the park at Parkers Landing. Community Garden Club of Camas/Washougal who tend to the park’s gardens, Soroptimist International of Camas-Washougal who beautify the historic silo planter each year, WSU Master Gardeners who run the Clark County Heritage Trees program, Chinook Indian Nation, Clark County Historical Museum, Two Rivers Heritage Museum, Daughters of the Pioneers of Washington, and the Parkersville National Historic Site Advisory Committee to the Port. Camas Scout Troop 562 will run the family games along with volunteers from the Rotary Club of Camas-Washougal and the Camas Lions Club. Learn about local history at this fun, educational event in the park.
For more information, visit the Parkers Landing Historical Park Facebook page or contact Susan Tripp at SusanLTripp@gmail.com.
