In the San Juan Archipelago, up close to the Canadian border and about 90 miles north of Seattle, there is a 220-acre island with only three homes that are occupied all year around. It is subdivided into 63 lots on which there are 36 vacation cabins.
The island is quite hard to get to. You first have to get on a ferryboat in Anacortes for the ride to Orcas Island. In the summer you’d better get in line at least two hours early to get a place on the overcrowded ferry boat that also stops at Lopez and Shaw Island before you get to Orcas. Then there is a 20-minute drive to where your small runabout is docked. In the pouring rain, you hope that your boat will start, and then you have a 10-minute trip to the Crane Island dock where, if luck has it, your car, tractor or golf cart will start.
The residents of Crane Island are all fiercely independent and every year they have their Fourth of July parade on the third. The third of July parade was postponed this year due to extreme humidity (heavy rain) and, so for the first time ever, it was held on the Fourth of July. There were more vehicles and float riders in the parade than there were spectators … by far.
The parade starts at the Crane Island dock and ends at the vast island estate of Dick and Nancy Clark for wonderful kids’ games and a big potluck of hotdogs, hamburgers, watermelon, soda pop, lots of potato salad and dozens of cookies and cupcakes. Dick Clark is an Army veteran and his wife Nancy is a former Washington state tennis champion and they have the only grass tennis court on Crane Island, where the games for the kids are held.
The parade entrants were well decorated and this year started off with the Crane Island fire truck followed by every tractor, riding and push lawnmower, and wagon on the island. All were lovingly decorated in the homemade style that makes things so much more fun.
The parade ran along the east side of the Becker Farm, which was the original caretaker’s farm. The farmhouse was built in the 1890s and still had a 1935 dial telephone that worked the last time I had dinner there. Up until we lost him a few years ago, Mr. Becker farmed the large fields and mowed the airfield with two magnificent draft horses. They harvested their own hay and were stabled during the winter in a fantastic barn. His sons still keep up the farm and the family once turned down a lot of money for it. The south end of the airport ends at the bumpy, dusty, dirt road that the parade was following.
Once the parade staggered to a stop at the Clark estate, the grass tennis court became the site of numerous games for the children and adults, such as the gunny sack race. Since they were short of gunny sacks anyone could enter if they just tied their shoelace together. That race was followed by the dog-calling races.
There was the traditional water balloon toss and the lady sitting next to me withdrew her son from the game because she was afraid he would get wet. The final event was the boat fender toss. Some of the men got into the final division after a few beers and the competition ended when one of the stronger dads threw the fender into the seating area and spilled a lot of the spectators’ cold drinks.
The seventh annual third of July parade was held on the Fourth of July for the first time and was pronounced a great success by everyone who lives on the island.
There was a traffic jam at the dock as a lot of the visiting vehicles were once again loaded onto the small boats to go home to the other islands where the owners could watch the Lake Union/Seattle fireworks on their HD flat screen TVs. The city does invade the rural communities, for some purposes.
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