Welcome to Afton, Minnesota, USA—my hometown! Afton is a diminutive and bucolic town located on the pristine and federally protected St. Croix River and is one of Minnesota’s oldest towns. Back in territorial days, when there were no ferries or bridges crossing the river, there was (and still is) a large sandbar, the Catfish Bar, which allowed for an easy and shallow crossing. Afton formed at this crossing point.
In
1839, Joseph Haskell made a claim on a piece of ground, built a house, cleared
a few acres and planted corn and potatoes, and thus became the first farmer in
what would later become Minnesota. The
old Haskell house still stands right here in Afton.
In
1855, a group of local settlers and farmers formed an association, bought a few
acres on the shore of the river near the sandbar, and platted the town. It grew quickly – soon it had a sawmill and there
was a flour mill just upstream – the first one in the territory! When it came time to name this up-and-coming
little town, Mrs. C. S. Getchell, the wife of the local schoolteacher,
suggested “Afton.” She was inspired to
suggest that name by the poem
“Sweet Afton” by the Scottish poet, Robert Burns, which was set to music in
1837 and was still quite popular in the 1850’s. We hear the music today at Christmastime – it
was appropriated as an alternative melody for “Away in the Manger”. Mrs. Getchell thought the lyrics describing a “murmuring
stream” flowing past “neighboring hills, far marked with the courses of clear
winding rills” perfectly illustrated how the St. Croix River flowed through the
hills and bluffs of the river valley.
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| The St. Croix River flowing through the surrounding hills and bluffs brought to mind, to at least one person, the Burns poem "Sweet Afton" (public domain photo) |
Afton
started as a small community of farmers, and that’s how it stayed for many
years. Meanwhile, twenty miles away, the
squalid Pig's Eye Landing had become the respectable and thriving St. Paul, and
thirty miles away, St. Anthony with its busy flour mills on the Mississippi
River had morphed into the thriving commercial center of Minneapolis. Minneapolis in 1860—two years after
Minnesota achieved statehood—already had a population of nearly 6000. By 1880 it had grown to 47,000. In 1880, Afton had managed to reach a
population of 130. It has had its ups
and downs since then but it will probably hit 3000 by the next census in 2020. Afton is still a place of forests and fields. The old village on the riverbank is a small
collection of houses and stores, and has been, for probably the last 100 years,
a place that the citizens of the Twin Cities have come in search of peace and
solitude. They come through the summer for
the beautiful St. Croix River and the recreational activities that the river
provides, and since 1963 they come in the winter for the Afton Alps ski
resort. Thus, the little farming town of
Afton has become a tourist town. There’s
nothing so mundane or practical as a grocery or hardware store in the old
village—instead the main street is dotted with restaurants, antique shops, a
clothing boutique, The Afton House Inn,
and notably, Selma’s—Minnesota’s
oldest ice cream parlor. Selma’s
began operation in 1913 when Torval Halberg allowed his daughter-in-law, Selma,
to sell ice cream from an addition to his circa 1880 house. Selma passed away in 1966, but her store has
continued to sell ice cream to citizens and tourists practically uninterrupted.
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| Afton's Main Drag (public domain photo) |
Back
in 1976 the folks in Afton decided to celebrate the bicentennial by hosting a 4th
of July parade. That parade has
continued in all of its splendor every Independence Day since then. In 1983, I moved to my Afton acreage along
with my wife, my dog, my cat, and my infant son. We didn’t get around to attending the parade
until 1985. We were blown away. Main Street is only a few blocks long, but
people come hours before the parade to stake out their spot with blankets and
lawn chairs, and by parade time they are four or five deep along the parade
route. The population of Afton probably
triples on parade day. The parade starts at noon sharp, heads down the main
drag from the marina, and when it hits the coulee at the far end of town, it
circles back along the same route. So, there’s
a parade going in two directions. The
obvious advantage of this is that spectators get to see everything twice. The less obvious advantage is that if you’re
in the parade, and an awful lot of Afton folks are, you get to see the parade,
too—in its entirety! You can expect a
lot of antique cars, people on horses, kids with wagons, guys on tractors,
local politicians, and royalty from nearby festivals, and of course the local
brass band, “The Schooner Band” playing their Sousa marches from atop a hay
wagon. And every parade unit hands out
candy to the kids (and adults) along the route until the sugar buzz aura encircling
the crowd is almost palpable. The day
after that 1985 parade, I was driving with my two-year-old through the old village,
still festooned with its flags and decorations and my son kept repeating with
increasing emotion, “Where da lie? Where
da lie?? Where da lie???” I finally realized he was asking, “Where
July?” It was his two-year-old way of
asking, “OK, yesterday was the most crazy and awesome day of my life and I know
we’re in the exact same spot where that awesomeness happened, so why isn’t it
happening now?”
Over
the years, we’ve been to a lot of Afton 4th of July parades, I’ve
played trombone in the Schooner Band, my kids have been on various floats
sponsored by the Scouts and other organizations, but this is the very first time
that there will be an official “Randy’s Chicken Blog” float.
I’m
not sure when the seed of an idea for a float first sprouted in my mind. But it really is pretty obvious. I’ve got this sweet little John Deere utility
tractor. And few years ago, I converted
an old boat trailer into a little wagon—painted green to match the
tractor. Turning that wagon into a float
wouldn’t be very hard! There would have
to be chickens, of course! I made the
announcement to the flock one night as I was tossing them their daily scratch
grain. They seemed enthusiastic! My wife, Kathy was even supportive, and she
has been known to shoot down my schemes …ahem…she has been known to shoot down
my wonderful ideas with unfair reference to practical reality. So, I moved forward, built a really cool
float, found appropriate chicken-themed music to play from a boom box bungeed
to the tractor, found a crew of enthusiastic volunteers to hand out candy to
the crowd, and have even completed a trial run with my two volunteer Silkie
hens. We are ready to go!
Now
it’s up to you! If you live in the area
and you’re looking for something to do on the 4th of July, look no
further! Come to beautiful, historic
Afton! And when the hens and I drive by,
give us a shout! If you can’t make it to the parade, rest assured that there
will be pictures and stories about the parade right here!
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| Here's a story of reincarnation: The little trailer you see here started life as a boat trailer. After a long life of hauling boats it was getting a little rusty, sad, and down at the heels, and that's when a guy bought it, removed the boat-hauling hardware, and fastened down a sheet of three-quarter inch plywood. The boat trailer had been reincarnated into a a flatbed trailer for him to haul his garbage to the dump once a week. When he got a truck, he didn't need the trailer anymore, so the little trailer was permanently parked in a neglected and weed filled corner of his back yard. That's when I bought it, did some fix-up, built the box, and painted it to match my tractor. In it's new incarnation it carried bales of straw and pine shavings, a water tank for watering my apple trees, and loads of kids on "tractor & trailer" rides through my woods. Now it's gone through a new incarnation. It has become the foundation of the "Randy's Chicken Blog" 4th of July Float! |
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| Tractor Signage! |
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| Here's a selfie of yours truly modeling one of the t-shirts that the float crew & I will be wearing during the parade. |
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| The buckets are filled with candy and ready for distribution to the candy-needy children attending the parade |
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| Emily and Courtney the Silkie Hens are on the Float and Ready to Rock & Roll! |
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