By Greg Ritchie
Messenger Reporter
GRAPELAND – Flags fly and the streets shine in downtown Grapeland – but behind the scenes residents are working with one goal – to bring the 77th annual Peanut Festival to life. Success depends on many things: weather, turnout – and somewhere close to a million other details.
The Grapeland Chamber of Commerce is working to get vendors and visitors in place and ready for Saturday’s parade and festival. The city of Grapeland itself is sweeping the streets, giving the city a good clean and making sure visitors are welcomed and kept safe. Grapeland Independent School District is working on the Friday night homecoming game and related festivities. This year’s four “Peanuts Queen” candidates make waves in dresses and parades — all while being full-time high school seniors.
Grapeland Town Supervisor Kevin Watts said the town has been working with many of the local residents to get the town center going before the festival.
“We’ve had street sweepers come in the past week and clean all the streets in town,” Watts said. “Our good friend Nikki Steinsbo (of Best Friends Community Services) came out and put American and Texas flags on all the telephone poles on Main Street. The Lion’s Club re-striped some of our downtown parking spaces. The local FHA came in and painted all our fire hydrants!”
The Grapeland Noon Lions Club will be raising funds for good causes by transporting people from the parking areas to the parade. Watts asks people not to park on Main Street before the parade.
“When people come to enjoy the parade, we ask them to park on the railroad side of Main Street and leave the parking spots in front of all open businesses,” Watts said. “In this way we can give the parade route as much space as possible. Some of the floats are quite large and some large equipment too. We just want to make sure everyone is safe and the parade has plenty of room to come down Main Street.”
Friday, Oct. 14 will see the homecoming game with the Sandies’ struggling district rival, the Shelbyville Dragons at 7:00 p.m. The carnival will be open that day from 18:00 to 23:00 At 21:00 there will be a concert in the park with the Rodney Reeves band. .
On Saturday, October 15, the traditional downtown parade will begin at 10 a.m. Afterwards, the carnival and live music will continue throughout the day. That night the Peanuts Queen Pageant will be held in the school auditorium at 7 p.m. This year’s candidates are Alexis Lopez, Emily Hanna, Marley Duhon and Daria Konkova.
This year’s homecoming court includes:
- Freshman Representative – Allison Mars
- Freshman Representative – Blake Davis
- Second Representative – Rickie Gilmore
- Junior Representative – Destin Dunn
- Junior Representative – La’Shae Jones
- Senior – Omarian Wiley
- Senior – Cole Goolsby
- Senior – Jeremy Pierce
- Senior Johnny Lamb
- Senior – Kyelan Beasley
- Senior – Sa’Riah Davis
- Senior – Cyshia Black
- Senior – Destiny Bolden
Weather can always be a factor – too hot or a threat of rain can ruin months of careful work. As much as the county needs rain — there’s at least none in the forecast through the weekend. With sunny skies, highs in the low 90s and cool mornings and evenings – the weather looks set for a Peanut Festival.
This year’s festival sponsors are Nucor-Vulcraft, Badder’s Law Firm, Cutshaw Chevrolet, Darling Ingredients, Grapeland State Bank, Bruner’s Economy Car Center and the Stubblefield family.
The music lineup for Saturday is also set, with a variety of styles guaranteed to please just about everyone: “Almost Legal” will start playing at 11 a.m. “Rochelle and the Sidewinders” will be at 1 p.m. The Johnnie Helm Band starts at 3 p.m
Greg Ritchie can be reached at [email protected]
