SVR Special Pages - Carnation Fourth of July Celebration

Carnation 4th Schedule 7 a.m., Registration for 5K Run for the Pies 8-11 a.m., Pancake Breakfast Tolt Congregational Church 8:30 a.m., 5K Run for the Pies Start / Finish corner of Tolt & Commercial 10:30 a.m., Kiddie Parade starts on Tolt Avenue, across from QFC 10:45 a.m., Welcome Address from the Mayor, at the Parade Stage 10:45 a.m., Flag raising at Tolt Commons Park 11 a.m., Grand Parade, down Tolt Avenue; sign in at the corner of Morrison and Tolt Post parade, Just Moo It! 3 on 3 basketball tournament starts in parking lot behind City Hall Post parade, West Coast Country Heat Dancers demo at the Parade Stage 12:30-4 p.m., CarNation’s American Customs and Classics Car Show, Tolt MacDonald Park, with the first annual Pin-Up Girl pageant at 1 p.m.

1-2 p.m., East Side Story Improv at the Tolt shelter 1-4 p.m., Eastside Fire & Rescue Open House at the Carnation Fire Station, 3600 Tolt Ave.

Carnation Fourth Saturday, July 4, 2015 A supplement to the Snoqualmie Valley Record 1-10:30 p.m., Beer garden opens 2:15-3:30 p.m., Cascade Community Theatre presents an adaptation of Shakespeare’s “A Comedy of Errors,” Tolt shelter ALL DAY, Vendor Village at Tolt Commons Park, kids bouncy toys in the Carnation Cafe Parking Lot; and live music at the Fireworks Stage at Tolt MacDonald Park Dusk: Fireworks at Tolt-MacDonald Park

10 • July 1, 2015 • Snoqualmie Valley Record

A classic: Grand Parade starts at 11 What’s better than an old-fashioned parade to celebrate the Fourth of July? Nothing, if you’re in Carnation, where all ages and cultures come together to celebrate the nation, with Chinese acrobatics, linedancing demos and horses of course.

The theme for this year’s Fourth of July celebration is “Honor Our Veterans.”

The parade gets started with the traditional children’s parade, at 10:30 a.m. down Tolt Avenue.

All children are welcome, and are asked to meet across from QFC for the start of the parade. Children march in opposite direction of the main parade, bikes up front so they don’t bump into anybody.

The main parade follows at 11 a.m. Each year, dozens of entries take part, with prizes on the line for the best in floats, horse entries, musical, cheer, vintage, political, and so on. Watch for the vintage cars heading for Tolt-MacDonald Park and the CarNation Customs & Classics car show starting after the parade.

Grand Marshal Al Rush will judge parade and select one special winner of the Grand Marshal Award.

Sign-in starts at 8 a.m. and entrants need to arrive by 10 a.m. The start area is at Tolt Congregational Church.

Typically, some 40 entries take part, and the parade lasts about an hour.

Arrive early for a good spot.

It’s his way

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Carnation Grand Marshal Al Rush has a story to tell

By CAROL LADWIG Editor

Al Rush has been the independent sort his whole life. It’s clear from the stories of his childhood in Massachusetts, where he worked as a pin-setter in a bowling alley and sometimes hitched a ride to Boston to see the Red Sox play — and from his present-day lifestyle of doing what he wants, when he wants, but regularly volunteering at Carnation’s Hopelink food bank, just because — that he’s always done things his own way.

So it’s a good thing that the Carnation Fourth of July parade grand marshal has only a few official responsibilities.

“I just have to sit in the car and look pretty,” said the 91-year-old Carnation man who will lead the parade for Carnation’s Fourth of July celebration Saturday. Then he laughs and asks, “I don’t have to make a speech, do I?” No speech is required, but if one was, it would certainly be worth a listen. Rush has been through some of the biggest moments in this country’s history, and was barely into his teen years for some of them.

Courtesy photos

Al Rush today, left, and during his service in the Navy, right.

Take his early adventures in hitchhiking, sometimes to get to work, and sometimes to get to a Red Sox game, 40 miles away. It held few terrors for Rush, then a red-headed teenager, to get into a car with a stranger, but he said “the most dangerous ride I ever had in my life was on a motorcycle!”

His hitchhiking was even less scary for his parents. “I just told them I was going to the ball game,” he recalled. “They didn’t know I was hitchhiking.”

He loved baseball, and used to listen to the Red Sox games on the radio when he couldn’t catch a ride to see them in person.

With his gift for understatement, Rush said, “They had a solid team… the first baseman was Jimmie Foxx — they called him double X — and there was Bobby Doerr, Dom DiMaggio — he’s Joe’s brother — and Ted Williams.”

He laughs at the thought that he

Pies are the prize Carnation’s annual Fourth of July celebration will get off to a running start with the Run for the Pies 5K run/walk through downtown, starting at 8:30 a.m.

First, second and third place winners in each age division win a fresh pie from Carnation’s own Remlinger Farms. Other prizes awarded to random finishers.

The Run for the Pies is part of the Snoqualmie Valley Cup, four races held in Duvall, Fall City and Carnation and Snoqualmie.

The runners with the lowest combined finishing time in all three races, in both the men’s

got to see some of the most famous players in the world, and at the idea of asking for their autographs.

“No, we didn’t do that, back then,” he said.

As a young man, Rush joined the Navy, like his father. He served in the Pacific theatre during the Korean War, for a total of almost four years. When he came back to the U.S., it was to Seattle, where he met his first wife, June, who completely changed his life.

“We met at a dance in Seattle, that she went to with her aunt and uncle,” he said. “She was a nice redhead.” When he was released from the Navy, he went home to tell his parents he was moving to Seattle, and marrying June, then he did.

They were married for 20 years, and had six children together.

In 1963, the family relocated to Carnation After the Navy, Rush worked for Weyerhaueser, in the planer mill. It

wasn’t so dangerous, he said, “You just had to watch what you were doing.”

He also worked the pool tables at Pete’s Club, where he belonged to a league for about 20 years. He’d gotten pretty good at pool since his youth at the bowling alley and pool hall, he said, but gave it up when he decided it was time to quit smoking and drinking — all on the same day.

He sounds a little wistful when he talks about pool, but says he doesn’t miss smoking or drinking, now.

“It was kind of rough for a while,” he admitted. “They said I couldn’t do it, all at once, but I proved them all wrong.”

After June’s death in the ‘60s, he left Weyerhaueser to take care of his children, still very young. He returned to work in the ‘70s and retired in the mid’80s, but by then, he’d already found a way to fill his days, volunteering at the food bank.

He’d also remarried, and “the wife went to the food bank, because she wanted to volunteer, so I went with her.”

Three decades later, that’s all the explanation he needs, or offers, for his long commitment to the food bank.

Rush also keeps pretty busy with trips to the Sno-Valley Senior Center, “about every day,” and visiting his son, Bill, in Carnation, to “goof around.”

He wasn’t so sure about accepting the title of grand marshal, he said, “but everybody said you’ve got to do it,” so he did, but in his own way.

Rush leads the grand parade for the Carnation Fourth of July Saturday, at 11 a.m.

and women’s divisions, receive a cash prize, a trophy and free entry into the 2016 events.

The race lures some very competitive and elite runners out to Carnation for the Run for the Pies. But it also brings out the weekend warriors, social walkers, babies in strollers and dogs.

Online registration is available through a link on the Carnation Fourth of July Celebration website, www.carnation4th.org.

What: 5K run and walk When: 8:30 a.m., July 4 Where: Run starts at Tolt Avenue and Commercial Street in downtown Carnation

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Snoqualmie Valley Record • July 1, 2015 • 11

Car show comeback

Find fuel for your Fourth fun at Senior Center

Volunteers give traditional show a new name and location, plus pin-up girls

By CAROL LADWIG Editor

Carnation’s “annual” car show has had a checkered past, in that it has struggled with locations in previous years. Also, there was no show last year.

“Steve and Doreen Norton started Hot Rods & Harleys in the late ‘90s, said Carnation Fourth chairperson Kim Lisk.

Under their guidance, the show went on every year, and it hit a bump when the couple stepped down from running it in 2010, but kept going. “But last year, we couldn’t find anyone to chair it.”

So the Hot Rods & Harleys show didn’t happen, to the disappointment of this year’s show organizers, Trent Whatley of Sammamish and Tommy Vondra of Carnation. Both volunteered, separately, to put on the car show after finding out it was cancelled and in the course of organizing the event, they’ve changed the name and location, and gave a nod to show founder Steve Norton, who died May 7. They also made a daring decision — to have a pin-up girl competition as part of the event.

Whatley recently took the time to answer a few questions about the show and why it’s important. He talks about pin-up girls, too.

File photo

Car fans discuss a classic at the 2013 car show. This year’s show will be at Tolt-MacDonald Park, starting after the parade.

Whats the new name?

CarNation American Customs & Classics Show.

Why is it important to you to have the car show as part of the event?

I have participated in the car show in past years and knew they were looking for someone to take over the show last year but figured a Carnation local would take on the role.

I went to register for the show last year only to find that they had not found a volunteer for the job and had cancelled the show, what a disappointment.

So I decided I would vol-

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Where is the show going to be held?

The new location at the Tolt-MacDonald Park I think will prove to be an even better and larger location for the car show.

By moving the show to the park and starting at noon it will allow the cars and bikes to be an actual part of the parade as well as a welcomed part of the afternoon activities including live music, food and other family events leading up to the main event, the fireworks show.

King County Parks were very receptive to the new location and have been extremely helpful in making this transition.

What about the pinup girl contest?

Well what would an allout family event be without a little home-town participation?

I really wanted to do something fun with the

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trophy presentations and figured a few malt-shop girls mixed in with a little rockabilly flair would make for a fun photo op for the car show crowd.

(The competition has a family-friendly emphasis, and participants must be 18 or older. See full rules at www.carnation4th.org/carshow_2015.htm.)

We are also going to be honoring the founder of the first Hotrods and Harley’s show Steve Norton. Steve was a longtime Carnation resident and just recently passed away so we thought we give out a special trophy at this years Carnation American Customs and Classics Show in his honor, the Steve Norton People’s Choice Award.

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unteer and see if we could get things started back up.

Luckily for me the carnation Fourth Committee welcomed me and Tommy stepped up to help out as well so off we went.

For me the Carnation car show has always been a favorite because it just feels different from a lot of other shows. The whole Carnation Fourth event represents what a hometown celebration is all about. It just didn’t seem right that it was missing last year.

Sno-Valley Senior Center in Carnation is cooking up a big weekend for the city’s Independence Day bash.

They’ve got your Friday night dinner and Saturday dessert covered, and, if you’re lucky, you might win a cover for your bed, too.

Kick off the weekend fun with a spaghetti dinner, 5 to 7 p.m. Friday, July 3.

Enjoy spaghetti with marinara or meat sauce, salad and garlic bread.

Cost is $6 per person at the door.

All day Saturday, or until they run out of strawberries, senior center volunteers will serve their annual strawberry shortcake feast.

Cost is $5 per person and the feast runs from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m.

While you’re at the center, or at the Re-in-Carnation Thrift Store, remember to buy some raffle tickets for the beautiful handmade quilt prize.

Raffle tickets are $1 each and the winner’s name will be drawn on July 6.

Proceeds from each of these events will support the programs at the SnoValley Senior Center.

For more information, call (425) 333-4152, or visit www. snovalleysenior.org.

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