Tupper Lake Field Day this weekend

by Dan McClelland

There will be plenty of fun and entertainment for the entire family this Saturday when the Town of Tupper Lake’s recreation department again hosts “Tupper Lake Field Day” in the Tupper Lake Municipal Park.

The three year old event was introduced by Director Laura LaBarge and her recreation department right after the departure of the Tupper Lake Woodsmen’s Days, which dominated the July events calendar its second weekend dating back to 1979.

This year’s theme is “Gone Country.”

The day begins at 11a.m. with another Field Day parade, directed by Amanda Lizotte, who handled the recent ones with skill and good organization, and before that the Woodsmen’s Days parade of marching bands, floats and logging equipment entries for a number of the recent years the logging event was here.

Parade entrants will form a line from the far end of The Boulevard at the start of The Junction from where the procession which proceed down the state highway and empty into the municipal park.

There is still room in the parade for more entries of floats and vehicles and marchers, and so those folks who haven’t signed up yet to participate, should call the recreation department in the town hall as soon as possible. Laura and her able assistant Christielee Geiger are eager to accommodate any and all parade participants.

In final planning this week is a new touch-a-truck event along the firemen’s strip in the park right after the parade. Business, groups and governmental agencies will large pieces of heavy equipment are encouraged to polish them up for Saturday and join the event. Touch-a-truck events are always popular here- with children being able to climb up into the cabs and experience the feel of a heavy equipment operator and truck driver.

Wood carvers from all over the country will be back this year- sculpting in great detail their pieces of art. Actually, many of the carvers will be arriving as early as today to begin their carving, and residents and visitors are always welcome to stop by the municipal park in the center of town.

About a dozen carvers are expected to come to town for the event, according to Mrs. LaBarge.

Some of last year’s talent will be returning.

“Many of these artisans follow a state or regional circuit of shows each summer, and are always happy to have an event here that fits that schedule,” she explained this week.

The auction of the many works created from those pieces of raw wood is set for 5p.m. Saturday.

Featured this year will be the archery range designed to teach children the fundamentals of the sport taught by members of the Tupper Lake Sportsmen’s Club.

Tupper Lake boasts a very well-run archery program run by the volunteers at the former Rod and Gun Club at their headquarters on Lake Simond Road. Organizers are always looking for more children and teens to join their program.

This year’s Field Day will again feature a car show, run by Tupper Lake’s snowmobile club leaders, Reese and Kelly Fleury. Visitors may find their favorite ride in mint condition that will take them back to memories from their teen years. Vintage car shows are always heaped in nostalgia, and this one will be no different.

The cars and other vehicles in the show will line the highway side of the park that day.

At the first-time show at the Field Day last year organizers were predicting a small field, but more than 50 vehicles and their owners came to show off their prize-winning rigs and brag about them. There’s a good chance this year’s second annual event will boast many entries, organizers are hoping.

Within the show will be many classes of vehicles- from classic to restored to modified to custom, etc., explained Mrs. LaBarge. Entries sometimes are defined by decade.

The winners in each class will receive trophies to take home with them.

The afternoon will be punctuated with all sorts of kids’ games, including sack races, three-legged races, spoon and egg matches, tugs of war between both kids of various ages and adults. Most, at this point in the planning, will be youth games. The games will run from about 1p.m. to 3p.m.

Many of the town recreation department’s day camp counselor will be helping Christielee run the games as volunteers this year.

There will be food trucks on site, as well as artisans and other vendors, inflated bounce houses and obstacle course and such, all under the director of Mrs. Geiger.

A corn hole tournament is also planned. Organizers had hoped it could be a fundraiser for the Tupper Lake Volunteer Ambulance Squad and its ambulance fund driver underway, but a shortage of available volunteers to run it nixed those plans. Face-painting artisans will also be there and are expected again to be very popular with the younger set.

For adults, in particular, but for any one, actually, Field Day will feature two hours of square dancing from 2p.m. to 4p.m., hosted by accomplished Tupper Lake musicians, Wayne and Laura Davison.

The new event will blend nicely with the “Gone Country” theme, as square dancing is a traditional pastime in rural communities everywhere.

The couple has introduced the popular form of dancing to high school classes in recent years.

“Field Day” this year will again present its popular “Slime Run” where young people navigate a short running course through a corridor of parents, all wielding buckets and pans of the gooey stuff. White t-shirts are encouraged to accentuate the effect of the various colors of goop thrown on the passing runners.

The course will be from one end of the firemen’s strip to the opposite end.

The fun event begins right at 3p.m. “and it’s a great way for parents to take out their pent up aggression on their kids in a very fun and safe way,” the recreation director joked. The slime run was very popular last year.

It’s open to kids of all ages, she emphasizes.

Big buckets filled with slime are available to parents who line the course to fill up their hand-held squirters, also provided. Buckets filled with slime can also be used.

Organizers are also planning something of a slip and slide for the kids too, if the weather is cooperative.

The day will cap off musically with a performance by Brock Gonyea and his new band, featuring pedal steel guitar stand-out Larry Reandeau. The band will perform from 4p.m. to 6p.m. and mark the close of a busy day of fun and interest in the park.

From start to finish, this year’s event will certainly have “Gone Country.”