Small towns across the country have welcomed their citizens to festivals of all kinds. Harvest festivals tend to be among the most popular type. Many had their early days back in the Victorian era.
One such small town was Walnut Creek, California. With roots back to the Gold Rush era, this typical small town was located at a crossroads, with walnut trees growing along the banks of the creek. Over the years, agriculture was the business that supported the town. It was what brought the railroads, and their access to the big cities.
After World War II, the sleepy little town grew in a bedroom community for San Francisco and Oakland. In the late 1960’s, an artery of the Interstate Highway system made it a more attractive as a place to live, only a short (in those days) drive from work. Rapid transit really kicked things up a notch, and the sleepy little town, became a city with a future. Walnut orchards gave way to homes, and packing sheds gave way to office buildings.
But it never forgot that harvest festival. A group of community business owners saw it as an opportunity. Promote the city and their businesses at the same time. And it was the chance for local groups to make money (in the days before someone called it “fund-raising”). The Walnut Festival was a classic small town event. Community groups like the Boy Scouts or the Lions Club had booths selling everything from piping hot corn-on-the-cob to tacos. There were craft displays and various contests. And a local carnival operator brought his show close to home for a long weekend. The highlight was a parade down Main Street.
All this was set up right in the downtown in the aptly named Civic Park.
The carnival featured rides for both kids and teens. The former included traditional “kiddy” rides while the latter included things like the “Flying Bobsleds” or the “Zipper” (guaranteed to separate those tacos from you after only 5 minutes of going 360 degrees as fast as you could rotate the pod!).
The Festival included a mascot, “King Walnut”, whose costume included a golden robe fringed with ersatz ermine, and a large walnut head complete with crown and scepter. Through a twist of fate, I ended up as “King Walnut” for a couple of years. I started out as a volunteer doing all kinds of odd jobs and ended up getting paid for my time.
The “King” made various appearances (with the lovely Festival Queen and court!) including parades and ceremonies. As well, there were expectations of walk-around appearances during the four days of the Festival as well.
One year, the Festival Association was approached by the local Sears store to help promote a new line of children’s clothing. And as it happened, that featured a new license from the Disney Company (you just knew somehow I would tie Disney into all of this), “Winnie the Pooh”.
So, to publicize this, Sears sent over a fairly used “Pooh” costume. You might remember how “Pooh” looked back then with the oversized fiberglass head topped with a pot of honey. Since the Festival already had me doing the bit as the “King”, they had me fill in for the “silly old bear” as well.
Now, remember that this was 1975, and theme park characters were not something one saw every day. So that first time I walked out “on stage” into the “kiddy carnival” I was in deep “Pooh”.
To say that I was “mobbed” was an understatement. I was surrounded by children so fast that I could not walk more than an inch at a time. And I was all alone. No handler, no zoo crew… just me! Luckily, from the office where I started to the “kiddy carnival” was maybe 200 feet. But that turned out to be the longest 200 feet of my young life. There was the expected pounding on the fiberglass and all of the pushing and shoving just to get to touch, let alone, see “Pooh”!
That first time out lasted all of twenty minutes. It seemed more like twenty hours. It was a warm, sunny September Saturday morning. After my initial foray into the amassed youths, I needed an hour to recover. After a lot of water, I felt human again, and made several more trips outside as “Pooh” that day, as well as the “King”.
That was my last time in public as a character. I can’t say I didn’t think about doing it again. There was an audition for a role as a walk-around character at (then) Marriott’s Great America in Santa Clara. Mercifully, I was spared from that.
Since then, whenever I visit the Park, I always have the greatest respect for anyone who is out and about in character. As the saying goes, walk a mile in those shoes. I did and they were heavy boots…
Life in a character costume can’t be an easy one, yet there are a group o’ folks who do so on their own. Some are quite professional in their approach and have created “fur suits” just as good as anything you might find in a theme park environment. And there is a group that seems to cover all the bases if you are interested in the practical side of this particular fandom. Visit them at: http://www.fursuit.org/