by Bethany M. Dunbar
LOWELL — “There’s no losers in this kind of a deal. Everybody wins,” said Ed Newton as he held up his first place ribbon for his 1947 Massey Harris tractor. Identical ribbons went to each participant in the Lowell FOLK festival parade on Saturday, and his comment seemed like a pretty good summary of the day as a whole.
The FOLK festival is a benefit for projects at the Lowell Graded School. FOLK stands for Friends of Lowell Kids.
“Our original mission was to build a playground,” sai
d Amy Olsen, an organizer of the festival. She said the group managed to raise enough money to build the playground, and now that the original mission has been accomplished, the group decided to keep going to fund other school-related projects, such as field trips, special visitors coming in, and a picnic at the end of the school year.
The FOLK festival parade Saturday featured churches, tractors (restored and new), fire trucks, horses and lots of candy being thrown from floats and picked up by kids along the parade route.
Mr. Newton drives a truck for Blue Flame gas, and his grandfather was a farmer in Brownington.
“My grandfather bought it brand new,” Mr. Newton said about his tractor. His grandfather’s name was Glenn Newton, and when he stopped using the tractor he parked it.
“I found it in the woods, in the mud,” Mr. Newton said, and two trees were growing up in the middle of it. He cut the trees, dragged it out of the mud, and fixed the tractor back up for going in parades. He said it has earned its keep, so now it’s retired.
He pointed to all the array of other tractors in the parade Saturday and said, the restored ones that are shiny with fresh paint are said to be in their Sunday best, while the others are in their work clothes.
After the parade, townspeople headed to the Lowell Graded School where booths were set up with crafts, baked goods, games for kids, a bouncy house, and more. Karen Colburn and Amanda Atwood had a table with products from Celebrating Home and Penelope Ann, a company that offers jewelry and bake ware, personalized items such as plaques, cutting boards, backpacks and handbags.
These items are for sale by local sales people, who can either hold parties, sell through a catalogue, or through the company’s website.
Inside the gym were more booths, and auction items were on display for the auction to be held in the afternoon. Among them were a mini-bar and a new wooden wishing well.
contact Bethany M. Dunbar at [email protected]
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