King Ferry celebrates rural living at its best

By Kathleen Barran / The Citizen

Saturday, August 2, 2008 11:35 PM EDT

KING FERRY - It rolled out about a half-hour after its planned start, but the 14th annual Wheat Harvest Festival parade went forward Saturday along its rain-drenched path.
Led by a Cayuga County Sheriff's Office car, a horse's wagonload of hay set the festival's theme.

Parade watchers included two cousins, Nellie Beyeler, of Jacksonville, Fla., and Lois Kelly, of Ithaca, both King Ferry Central School graduates, '52 and '51 respectively.

“I don't like to miss it,” Nellie said. “You renew a lot of friendships and see people you went to school with. Yea! I just love it.”

The same enthusiasm was shared by some younger spectators.

Chris Janssen, 7 and his friend, J.J. Hartmann, 8, both third graders at Emily Howland Elementary School, sat right at the main intersection, hoping to take in a ton of candy tossed to the crowd. Their plastic bags were ready for the stash.

Chris' mom, Rebecca Janssen, of Scipio, and her friend, Donna Cooper, of Aurora, were waiting for the Brownie float to see Chris' sister, Megan, 6.

After the parade, everyone walked to the field next to the Rural Life Museum, where food, games and crafts awaited.

An arts and crafts booth featured a special quilt made by the Cayuga Quilt Guild of Aurora and Union Springs. It will be raffled in October to raise funds to restore the Howland Stone Store Museum. It contains supposed patterns that were messages for runaway slaves, telling them how to behave to avoid being caught, according to Ellen Wikstrom, a board member of the Howland Museum.

Decorated eggs in the Russian/Ukrainian tradition by artist Mia Sohn included everything from a partridge egg, very small, to an ostrich egg, the largest. Sohn grew up in King Ferry and learned how to design eggs from a Ukrainian girl she met in a library.

Sabrina Hyde, 9, of Auburn, watched intently as Sohn worked her magic on an egg.

“The legend goes, the more eggs that are made, the less evil there is in the world,” Sohn said, “so I'm trying to save the world.”

She makes several hundred a year and sells about 25 or 30 per show.

“There's a story for every design,” Sohn said. “Butterflies for a fresh start, wheat or beer for fertility, acorns or oak leaves for virility, horses for luck or money.”

Staff writer Kathleen Barran can be reached at 253-5311 ext. 238 or kathleen.barran@lee.net

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