Labor Day offers years of memories

When you have been involved with an organization as long as I have with the Ontonagon Labor Festival, you have many memories.

For more than 50 years, with many chairmen and groups, the annual event has been part of my life. It has become more than a local celebration. It is a homecoming, a last hurrah of the summer, a goodbye to the Upper Peninsula. It's all these things and more to many people.

For me, it is a flood of memories. The most vivid, of course is the one in 2008. The phone woke me at 5:30 a.m. that Labor Day Sunday. "Get downtown, the town is burning down," the speaker said.

I raced down and the place was ablaze. Four businesses turned into five and then crossed the street for six. At one time, we thought the bank would go and the rest of the block. My son owned one of the buildings and I watched that burn.

With much consultation with the sheriff, firemen, prosecutor and Festival Committee, we decided the town needed that parade to continue. It was shortened and while the hoses were still trained on the blaze, the floats and bands marched. The picture taken by Mike Townsend, which shows the scene, is very compelling. Most people felt the decision was the right one.

But there are also many other memories.

There is Ed Hansen, for whom the race is named each Labor Day Sunday. He was chairman and held the festival together when it was starting to slip.

Dutch Kempen is almost the last of the original group, with more than 60 years working on the annual event.

Businessmen and women Nolan Olson, Spenser Ross, Gene Farley, Irene Goulet, Bob Chapman and others were an integral part of those early days and to them we owe a salute for keeping the celebration alive.

Kurt Giesau led the celebration for many years and his hard work kept the event fresh. Music was his big thing and he always made sure there were dances, bands and other avenues for entertainment.

Although the big prize is for the winner of the drawn 50-50 ticket, it was not always so. Residents and visitors would sign up at local business places. A drawing was held and big-ticket items like sofas, refrigerators, lamps and jewelry were given as prizes.

Because some people would stuff the ballot boxes and always win, the group went to booster buttons. Several prizes were given to the people with the right button number. In more modern times, we copied the success of the Bessemer event and sold 50-50s.

Kitty Wells was a fading star, but still famous, when she entertained for Labor Day.

We had boxing, sailboat regattas, canoe races, lawnmower races, even hydroplane races with our advertisements, "Thrills, chills and spills."

We lost money on many of them and they were quickly taken off the agenda.

Volunteering for Labor Day can be addictive. Many years ago Bill Chabot and Bill Wood were on the committee. Chabot left for a job in Missouri, but when he retired he came back to Ontonagon and to the committee.

Same with Wood. He had a pharmacy here and left for positions in the South. When he retired in Ontonagon, he, too, came back to the committee. There is a little bit of insanity in all of us!

It took a little insanity to stick with it after some criticism would come our way. One year, a woman raised a lot of cane and letters to the editors when her float, which was submitted by a labor group, did not win first place. She said since it was Labor Day, her float deserved first, regardless if it was not the best.

There are memories of fantastic home-built floats, of Country Club and Stein Club duels for first place. Through the years, they were challenged by a group known as the Thirsty Fifty-Firsters, who had some great floats. The Bauer family, through the years, also challenged the big guns.

The memories are wonderful, but the best is the feeling I get at the Sunday parades - music, floats, smiles and waves of the large crowds. They are what make the Ontonagon Labor Day festival so special for me.

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Set this out in the crockpot, and you have a real treat.

Butterscotch Pecan

Bread Pudding

In a four-quart, greased crockpot place: eight slices of white bread, cubed, 1⁄2 cup chopped pecans, and 1⁄2 cup butterscotch chips. In a large bowl, mix four eggs, two cups half and half cream, 1⁄2 cup packed brown sugar, 1⁄2 cup butter, melted, and one teaspoon vanilla.

Pour over top of the bread mixture. Cover and cook on low for three to four hours, until a knife inserted in the center comes out clean. Serve warm just the way it is or with whipped cream or drizzle a little caramel ice cream sauce over the top.