Serving Whitman County since 1877
Serving Whitman County since 1877
JP Flyer kid 2729
It was at about the quarter-way point of the 47th running of the Johnson Fourth of July parade.
A high, rural-district fire truck rolled along, suckers and Tootsie Rolls trailing down from the top to crowds of spectators lining Johnson Road.
“Candy fire!” called out an 8-year-old boy.
Bap, bap, bap.
“Oh shh…” said a 20-year-old woman as the candy landed around her on the plastic bedliner of a pickup.
More floats rolled by, in the annual event originated and populated by many Druffel family members, and the throngs that join them on Fourth of July morning.
One exhibit saluted Alma Druffel for her 90th birthday with her riding on a “John’s Son’s Circus” display dedicated to her husband John Druffel, who died in April. He was an uncle to the original parading Druffel children from 1967.
Alma has been at every one of the Johnson parades.
In one ring of John’s Son’s Circus was mother-and-daughter duo Paula and Laura Levan of Kennewick, waving from last year’s gray-box “Empire Strikes Back” AT-AT Walker converted into an elephant. Spinning on a wooden wheel was Heather Watson, recruited by a Druffel who is her boyfriend, one of 21 family members in the exhibit.
“Children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” said Alma.
More exhibits in the all-are-welcome-just-be-in-good-taste parade included the “Johnson Community Pool” float with a grown man in the kiddie pool, while another brought to life the big-screen downtown Chicago impromptu parade performance of Ferris Bueller in the 1986 movie, “Ferris Bueller’s Day Off.” Then there were convertibles and royalty from Palouse, Colton and Colfax, the mousetrap Rube Goldberg concoction that Fritz Druffel built in the 1970s, Community Band of the Palouse looking like they stepped right out of the crowd with instruments strapped on and a Trotter family weekend of fun.
Fritz Druffel was also the honoree of a rolling exhibit called “The Original Duck Dynasty,” paying tribute to how the late Druffel made about a thousand carved ducks out of cedar fence posts during his retirement years. He died in 1997.
While keeping the many Druffels straight may be a fool’s errand, there is one simple way to grasp it.
“We’re related to everybody on the right side of the road,” said Emily Druffel, 31, pointing to the parade route. She played one of the clowns in the circus.
Another attraction that also was to be part of “John’s Son’s Circus” was the splitting car of Adam and Ben Wolf, who married Druffel girls. Grandfather Dan Wolf and brother-in-law Mike Wolf made it out of a Fiat 128 for the Johnson parade many years ago.
“Every Fourth of July, the front half would always work. It was the back half that would give us trouble,” said Jake Wolf, Adam’s son, who just graduated from Colton High School in June. Last year, Adam wore a bunny suit in the parade, another year a gorilla suit. This year, he rode the family’s yellow 1972 Honda 70 motorcycle.
As for the splitting-car trouble that happened in 2014, there’s always next year, sure to be another candy fire in Johnson for the Fourth of July.
Garth Meyer is a former Whitman County Gazette reporter.
Reader Comments(0)