For a festival of fall fun, leaf it all to Salisbury

SALISBURY — The weather was glorious for the 43rd annual Salisbury Fall Festival, which was held not just in the town’s main village but also in Lakeville. 

The three-day stretch of craft sales, bread baking, hot dogs, scarecrow displays, musical performances, quilts and activities for children and small animals began on Friday, Oct. 11, and stretched to Sunday, Oct. 13 (for coverage of Sunday’s Pet Parade, see Every dog has his day (and a hamster won, too)).

The first thing a visitor noticed about the Salisbury Fall Festival on Saturday at about 11:30 a.m. was a liquid mass of children surging around the grounds of the Scoville Memorial Library, decorating pumpkins and rocks and making friendship bracelets. 

There were also opportunities to make slime and to play popular games such as the “heave a wet sponge at your best friend” contest.

Across the street in front of the Congregational Church, magician Peter James performed for a crowd of children and parents.

Farther along Main Street, blacksmith William Trowbridge was hammering a piece of glowing metal.

He was asked if he was using coal for his fire.

He was: “Soft coal,” he specified.

The man asking about the fire said he was a retired welder. There followed a deep and highly technical discussion of welding.

A woman chimed in, saying her father was an iron worker.

“And I’ve got the gates to prove it.”

On the town Green near the White Hart, a musical group consisting of Charlie Keil (valve trombone), Angela Keil (percussion) and Ray Kasevich (slide trombone) performed.

An onlooker requested the U.S. Air Force Song (popularly known as, “Off we go into the wild blue yonder”). The group launched into it without hesitation.

Over in the Salisbury Volunteer Ambulance Service garage there were games for children and there were volunteers eager to take visitors’ blood pressure and demonstrate the equipment.

A reporter prudently resisted the invitation to get on the high-tech gurney.  Showing great presence of mind, the reporter shoved it off on George Rand, who cheerfully hopped on.

Jacquie Rice demonstrated the use of a “combat application tourniquet” on an arm model that had gruesome (and Halloweenish) wounds.

Rice also showed visitors the “Thumper,” a device that performs heart compressions automatically.

Walking back toward Town Hall, the strains of “76 Trombones” came from the library, where the Salisbury Band Hotshots were playing.

Along the Rail Trail, Jim Dresser and Georgia Petry, representing the Pope committee, had a tent, refreshments, and maps available for those who wanted to walk the Pope property (purchased by the town in 2016).

Chris and Patty Williams came along the trail from the Lakeville side, and stopped to chat.

And back on the library grounds, three junior firefighters from the Lakeville Hose Company were on hand to talk to the curious.

Nick DeVito (age 16) said he wants to be a professional firefighter and EMT. Kirstyn Hoage (age 15) wants to be an arson investigator. And 14-year-old Keira Reid has four generations of firefighters in her family.

So what do the junior firefighters do?

“Clean up at the scene,” said Hoage. 

“It’s a support role,” added DeVito.

Walking west along Main Street from the library at about 2 p.m., cars were parked on both sides of the road well past the intersection with Salmon Kill Road, indicating a well-attended Fall Festival. 

Sadly, this year there was no Robert “Bullet” Sherwood to direct traffic. Sherwood died this year at the age of 72; his loss was felt throughout the Fall Festival weekend.

Voting for the most popular scarecrows was held throughout the weekend. The winners:

Individual/Family

First place, Soule Family, “Rainbow Unicorn”

Second place,  Linda Campbell, “Girls Night Out”

Business/Nonprofit

First place, Elyse Harney Real Estate, “There’s No Place Like Home”

Second place, On The Run, “Twisted Jim”

Third place, Black Rabbit, “Always Hoppin’”

School

First place, Indian Mountain School, “Head Over Heels 4 Fall”

Second place, Salisbury School, “The Year of the Pig”

Third place, Housatonic Valley Regional High School,  “High School Nightmare”

Kids

First place, Ella W & Tessie C, “Feline Groovy”

Second place, Hadley C & Cole M, “Lion King”

Third place, Housatonic Child Care Center, “The Little Blue Truck”