Tamaqua Heritage Festival popular attraction despite rainy start

The annual Tamaqua Heritage Festival was a lot of fun for many people who were thankful that the early morning heavy rains ended in time and stayed away.

Vendors lined several blocks of Broad Street — some individual businesses, others representing various organizations, including fire companies, Boy Scouts, churches and civic groups.

There were crafters and music, and the Tamaqua Historical Society showed its collection of treasures of the past from the Tamaqua area. And there was plenty of food to be enjoyed, including pinchos (shish kebabs) made by Leo and Diane Santiago of Hatfield.

“We come every year for the festival and we love it here,” Leo Santiago said.

The International Order of Odd Fellows Harmony and Lady Harmony Rebekah Lodge 86 of Tamaqua attended again, selling cotton candy as usual, along with a new treat — fresh-pressed apple cider in an antique press being used for the first time in about 40 years.

Working the machine was Art Valentine of Walker Township, who cranked the press used by his father many years ago. Feeding in the apples was Laura Bailey of Tamaqua.

“It’s only a little one, but we used it years and years ago,” Valentine said. “I haven’t used it in 40 years. It’s older than me. For all I know, it could be 150 years old. My dad had it as long as I can remember. It works well and does the job.”

An unscheduled treat for festival visitors happened around 11 a.m. when a Reading and Northern Railroad Fall Foliage train excursion came through the downtown, led by a classic locomotive pulling a line of filled passenger cars. The old-style locomotive added to the historical ambience of the day.

Clare Schachte, 16, Ashland, crocheted while she sat at her “Clare’s Creations” stand, assisted by her mother, Mary Schachte.

“I only learned to crochet about a year and a half ago, and that’s when I started selling them. I’ve always been into crafts.”

Members of the Tamaqua Heritage Players walked among the crowd in costume, adding to the historical field and promoting “The Day of the Rope” later in the day. Three members of the Victorian Highwheelers rode around town on their classic high wheel bicycles from the late 1800s.

At Hegarty’s Blacksmith Shop, blacksmith Donald Campbell worked with a hammer, anvil and forge, showing the art of shaping hot metal into a variety of shapes.

Campbell had been in the trade for 32 years.

Near the shop, folk singer and musician Jay Smarr used guitar and fiddle to perform traditional folk music to sing with, tap your feet to or just plain smile.