Healdsburg's Twilight Parade returns for 66th year

Healdsburg’s Twilight Parade, the antidote to the town’s image as a hip tourist haven, strutted its homey, country underpinnings on Thursday, highlighting an enduring bit of Americana that still thrives in Wine Country.

Cowboy hats, hay bales, horses and boot-scooting line dancers were mixed in Thursday with the more customary fire trucks, politicians, Shriners, classic cars and beauty queens, in a paean to the town’s agricultural heritage that signals the start of the three-day Healdsburg Future Farmers Fair.

“It’s amazing because some people worry it’s getting too touristy,” said North County Supervisor James Gore, who was riding in the parade.

He said Healdsburg may have gone from “the buckle of the prune belt, to the buckle of the wine industry,” but agriculture is still “the beating heart of the local community.”

The parade, which began in 1950, traces its humble origins to when about 10 men on tractors decided to drive through the town to drum up business for the fair held for agriculture students.

The 66th annual parade kicked off this week’s Future Farmers Country Fair, held at Recreation Park through Saturday.

This year’s theme is “Barn in the USA.”

The fair features livestock auctions, circus acts, a midway and food booths that benefit nonprofit community groups.

Healdsburg isn’t the only town that honors its agricultural roots, but it has a special distinction.

“Cloverdale has the Citrus Fair. Petaluma has Butter and Egg Days. This has always been the FFA weekend,” said former City Manager Charlie Brown, who was driving a 1930 Buick coupe in the parade that he paid $45 for in 1954.

“This is a great parade because it’s a family parade,” said Monte Rio Fire Chief Steve Baxman, who was driving a huge surplus military truck and participating in his 15th Healdsburg parade. “This is a friendly town and they show their friendliness,” he said.

Longtime residents said the parade energy hasn’t ebbed in recent years.

“It’s not going away anytime soon,” said Dick Bugarske, a retired educator who has lived in Healdsburg since 1975 and participated all those years, including with his children and grandchildren.

The agricultural scene is evolving with the “farm-to-table” trend, he said, but the parade and Future Farmers Fair represent the roots “of everything we are in this community.”

“It’s really all about community, yes about agriculture and the community as well,” said former mayor, now Assemblyman Jim Wood, D-Healdsburg, as he prepared to ride the 12-block parade route in a vintage Corvette Stingray

“It’s all about small-town character and our rural heritage,” said Mayor Shaun McCaffrey, who repeated the oft-heard expression about the event: “If you’re not in the parade, you’re watching it.”

Gabrielle Larson, 27, was watching the parade on Center Street with her 10-month-old daughter, Avery.

“Everybody comes out for it,” she said. “I always joke around that it’s a high school reunion. You see people you do, or don’t want to see.”

Ernestine Reiman, 78, said she’s seen many of the parades since they started. “It’s just gotten bigger,” she said.

Attorney Gail Jonas, a 49-year resident, was watching the parade from outside a house on University Avenue, where many of Healdsburg’s most charming and stately homes are located. “It’s the one thing that hasn’t changed,” she said, before noting one difference - “more trucks with loud horns.”