{"id":16545,"date":"2021-08-25T01:53:26","date_gmt":"2021-08-25T01:53:26","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/?p=16545"},"modified":"2021-08-24T20:53:56","modified_gmt":"2021-08-24T20:53:56","slug":"the-old-normal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/2021\/08\/25\/the-old-normal\/","title":{"rendered":"The Old Normal"},"content":{"rendered":"

Wagon Days are here again, Sept. 3\u20135<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n

By Eric Valentine<\/em><\/p>\n

It\u2019s like there isn\u2019t even a pandemic going on.<\/p>\n

On the heels of a rescinded mask mandate and in the midst of warnings by health officials that the so-called Delta variant of the coronavirus will cause \u201cgrim\u201d conditions across the state, Labor Day weekend in Ketchum is gearing up to be nothing but grins.<\/p>\n

Blaine County has, according to the latest Mayo Clinic data, remained relatively unharmed by the uptick, with an average of three new cases daily. However, that information is always a week behind and upticks, by definition, can get worse exponentially. Already, St. Luke\u2019s is halting elective surgeries and procedures requiring overnight hospital stays, although Idaho remains in Stage 4 of the reopening. That means:<\/p>\n

\u25cf No recommended limitations on gathering sizes, both public and private<\/p>\n

\u25cf COVID-19 vaccine is encouraged for all eligible individuals<\/p>\n

\u25cf All individuals, businesses and governmental entities should adhere to physical distancing and sanitation guidelines<\/p>\n

In other words, let the festivities begin\u2014starting with Friday, Sep. 3, at 5:30 p.m. in Town Square with the Grand Marshal Ceremony. This year\u2019s ceremony will be celebrating John and Diane Peavey, the Grand Marshals of 2021. There will be food and drink provided by the City of Ketchum.<\/p>\n

Continuing on Saturday, Sept. 4, from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m., there will be children\u2019s activities on East Avenue as well as food and beverages available for purchase from local vendors. Enjoy live music in Town Square from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. by Wes Urbaniak and the Mountain Folk. This all-original trio comes from Montana, performing mountain folk music filled with lyrical flow, and the harmonies of an upright bass and ukulele.<\/p>\n

The Big Hitch parade will kick off at 1 p.m. Limited reserved seating is available for purchase online, or in person from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. daily at the Ore Wagon Museum. The reserved seating for the parade is available for the corner of Sun Valley Road and Main Street Ketchum. These seats allow for a perfect view of the entire parade and are located along the only area of the parade route where the Big Hitch 20-draft-mule jerkline \u201cjumps the chain\u201d to navigate the 90-degree turn.<\/p>\n

Seats for the best view in the house are $25 each. They can be purchased at the Wagon Days Headquarters, located inside the Ore Wagon Museum on 5th Street and East Avenue. Immediately following the parade, stick around for more live music performed by the \u201cGuitarist to the Stars\u201d\u2014Gary Tackett. You will enjoy this guitar-driven, rockin\u2019 style of roadhouse blues mix infused with sounds of Austin, Memphis and Nashville. And, don\u2019t forget to stop by the Historical Display at the Wagon Days Headquarters located in the Ore Wagon Museum. This display will run from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. every day from Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.<\/p>\n

Grand Marshals<\/b><\/p>\n

Ketchum Mayor Neil Bradshaw selected Diane Josephy Peavey and John Peavey as the Grand Marshals for Wagon Days 2021 thanks to their significant and lasting contributions to Ketchum\u2019s culture and educational landscape, the city said. Together, they created the annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival, which is held each October in Ketchum and is now recognizing its 25th anniversary.<\/p>\n

Third-generation rancher John Peavey spent 21 years as an Idaho State Senator. During that time, he launched an initiative to create Idaho\u2019s Sunshine Laws and protected water rights on the Snake River.<\/p>\n

Locally, Peavey supported the proposal for a paved bike path on the Union Pacific Railroad right-of-way to connect Blaine County and encouraged the shared use of the right-of-way, which had been used for decades as a stock \u201cdriveway.\u201d<\/p>\n

Complaints over sheep on the bike path motivated Peavey to invite the public to help with the annual sheep drive. Participation grew from twenty people the first year to holding the first annual Trailing of the Sheep Festival in 1997.<\/p>\n

Peavey\u2019s wife, Diane Josephy Peavey, is an author best known for her writings about her life on a sheep and cattle ranch in south-central Idaho\u2014its people, history, and the American West\u2019s changing landscape. Her own story is one of an evolution from a city girl to a rancher and writer. Her writings aired weekly on Idaho Public Radio for 15 years, and many are collected in her book, Bitterbrush Country: Living on the Edge of the Land.<\/p>\n

In addition to founding the Trailing of the Sheep Festival, Josephy Peavey has been an invited poet at the National Cowboy Poetry Gathering in Elko, Nevada; was the first director of the Idaho Rural Council; and the literature director for the Idaho Commission on the Arts.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Wagon Days are here again, Sept. 3\u20135 By Eric Valentine It\u2019s like there isn\u2019t even a pandemic going on. On the heels of a rescinded mask mandate and in the midst of warnings by health officials that the so-called Delta variant of the coronavirus will cause \u201cgrim\u201d conditions across the state, Labor Day weekend in […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16551,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"tdm_status":"","tdm_grid_status":"","_pvb_checkbox_block_on_post":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[72,4,6,88,18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-16545","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-community","8":"category-entertainment","9":"category-event","10":"category-local","11":"category-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16545"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16552,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16545\/revisions\/16552"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16551"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/woodriverweekly.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}