Quincy celebrates farmers, markets and community

QUINCY — The first thing the Quincy Lions Club does to prepare for Farmer Consumer Awareness Day is secure the Quincy High School kitchen.

So they can serve breakfast.

“Everything else comes after that,” said Frank Young, 81, a retired production supervisor with Lamb Weston.

By everything, Young means the supplies needed to make pancakes, sausage, and hash browns for all comers. And rounding up enough volunteers.

“We almost didn’t have enough people last year,” Young said. “But this year, everywhere you go, there are more than enough people. We even have people standing around.”

Young, however, wants to make it clear that the Quincy Lions are only serving breakfast. Organizing the parade — that’s the job of the Quincy Valley Lions, a splinter group from the city’s original club.

Bill Wurl, who drove a 1972 convertible Mercury Cougar in the parade and graduated from Quincy High School in 1956, said that Farmer Consumer Awareness Day began long ago as Quincy Canal Days, and he was involved as far back as the 1960s when as the owner of a U-Haul franchise, he drove a U-Haul truck and a trailer in the parade.

“It lets people see where your farm products come from,” he said.

And that includes tours of farms so people can see harvest in action, Wurl added.

The parade was a celebration of agriculture, full of farm equipment new and old, as well as Quincy’s harvest-time festival, bringing together schools, churches, the FFA, Mexican dancing troupes, classic cars, and what appeared to be every piece of equipment owned by Grant County Fire District No. 3.

It was a chance to celebrate, to show off, and to do a little business as well.

In the high school gym, Nick Halverson sat amidst a collection of new and used farm toys — mostly green John Deere tractors of one make or another — that he’s selling.

“I’ve been selling since 2012,” he said. “I buy and pick up toys, and customize them too.”

Behind him, Ken Patience is putting the finishing touches on his stand. A leatherworker and a native of Ephrata, Patience custom makes everything from wallets to belts to book covers to chaps, holsters, and even tack.

“Most of my business is in horse equipment, chaps and holsters,” he said.

“I used to be a long-haul truck driver. I heard I could make a living doing this, and I wanted to get out of trucking,” Patience said. “I learned this in high school, when they used to teach you something.

“Now, it’s hard to keep up with the demand,” he said.

Charles H. Featherstone can be reached via email at countygvt@columbiabasinherald.com