The Bright Lights Book Project: Enjoy the Read!
Contributed by Alys Culhane
The theme of this year’s Alaska State Fair was, “Enjoy the Ride.” I thought, why not extend the metaphor, and enter Hrimfara (my Icelandic mare) in the fair parade? I’d fill the pinto mare’s pack bags with children’s books and pass them out along the route.
This was fitting, considering one of my favorite books is The Biblioburro by Jeanette Winters. The Biblioburro is a traveling library in which books are distributed to patrons from the backs of two donkeys. Hrimfara (aka Frosty Traveler) would thus serve the same purpose as Alfa and Beto.
I sorted and organized chapbooks, which I bundled together and placed in four cardboard boxes. I also corralled several volunteers into passing out books on parade day. Come parade day, we trailered Hrimmi to the Palmer Senior Center parking lot. Pete put her pack saddle in place, then weighed the book bundles – 80 lbs. total. It’s important when you pack bags, to make sure both sides are equal, or else the pack saddle will slip.
I next wrote the words The End with a dry erase marker on the white spot on Hrimmi’s butt. This was most appropriate, for the BLBP would honor the fact that this was to be the final Alaska State Fair parade. Pete and Hrimmi then walked down Chugach Street, with me following behind, passing out books to young onlookers, and telling them to “enjoy the read!”
Pete and Hrimmi wound their way through a noisy sea of parade participants and vehicles, one grouping of which included several motorcycles. I grew anxious when the pair encountered a moving float shaped like a snake. I needn’t have worried. I watched as Hrimmi’s ears flicked back and forth – this was her way of saying that she was not afraid of the strange sight.
Pete stopped every so often in order to strike up conversations with onlookers. I told him to keep moving when the pair came to the Master Gardener’s float because Hrimmi wanted to sample the goods.
BLBP President Robert Wallace drove our vehicle to the end of the line. Eight volunteers joined us, and I handed each one a bundle of screened books, further explaining that when they ran low, that Hrimmi would resupply them.
The start was uneventful. Pete and Hrimmi moved at a walk, and the volunteers passed out books to parade onlookers. The children’s candy bags were so full that parents had to take their books for them. If, I thought, there’s a parade next year, we can partner with dentists and pass out toothbrushes and toothpaste.
We turned onto Alaska Street where the sidewalks were packed with three deep with parents and their children. The book distributors repeatedly rushed over to me in order to get more book bundles. The pack grew light on one side then the other. Fortunately, it did not slip. Pete slowed things down a bit by every so often introducing Hrimmi to the delighted children. He pointed to the words on Hrimmi’s rear end, and when they yelled out, “The End” yelled “There, you can read!”
When finally, we arrived at the announcer’s bleachers, Pete stopped and Hrimmi stood square. I was of course proud of Hrimmi, the slow-moving mare who seemed to have found her calling in life, which was to be a bibliographic pack horse. And I was proud of the BLBP Board members and volunteers, who had agreed to help out on a rare sunny Saturday morning.
The official parade finish was the Palmer Pioneer Home. There the residents clapped when Hrimmi walked by. She paused, with Pete remarking, “She thinks this parade was for her.” Our unofficial finish was the Palmer Senior Center, where Hrimmi gravitated in the direction of her hay bag, which had been left tied to the trailer.
There, Pete, Robert, and my artist friend Cathy Stone stood for another half hour, talking about parade particulars. This, I later told Pete, gave Hrimfara a chance to wind down, to which he responded, “Not that she’d was ever wound up!”
I was, as I loaded Hrimfara into her trailer, filled with a sense of sadness because it had been confirmed that this was final Alaska State Fair Parade. Nevertheless, I have my fingers crossed that the powers that be reconsider their decision and allow for an Alaska State Fair Parade next year.