New Twirling Skills Should Be Impressive
Post Falls High School juniors Amber Durflinger and Sheri Gewecke twirled their flags down the street in the Post Falls Days Parade last Saturday and next Saturday they’ll begin two weeks of intensive training as members of the Seattle Cascades Drum and Bugle Corps.
The group then will head for California to begin a six-week national tour which concludes the first week of August in Washington, D.C., for the Drum Corps International finals.
The Cascades are an elite group of young people representing Washington, Oregon, Idaho and Montana. What an honor to have two local girls representing their community and school as members. We can all look forward to some even more impressive twirling when Amber and Sheri bring back to the high school flag team the skills they’ve learned over the summer.
Observations from the parade official golf cart … Jeanne Hayes, gymnastics instructor for the Coeur d’Alene Parks and Recreation Department, is just this side of the big 5-0 but she looked like a kid as she dazzled the crowds with some exuberant cartwheels and roundoffs. Her husband, Chief Cliff Hayes, should wear that PFPD uniform more often. He looks pretty sharp in it.
Scott Shawver, of Car d’Alene ‘99 infamy, was riding something much smaller than his Harley. The “pocket bike” is only 18 inches tall and is wheelie and burn-out proof. Skip Hissong did double duty on parade day beginning with the crew orientation at 7:30 a.m. and working the check-in/line-up until just a few minutes before the parade started at 11 a.m. when he hopped into a convertible in the place of honor at the front of the parade.
Post Falls’ Citizen of the Year waved to the crowd and then promptly rejoined the crew behind the scenes as a volunteer.
Superintendent Dick Harris chauffeured the PFHS Teachers of the Year and driving the community float, with his knees at about chin level, was Principal John Billetz.
One of the few people not riding in a Miata convertible was Post Falls Mazda owner Gene Reed, whose parade transportation of choice was a T-bucket hot rod. And what happens when the marching band drum major also is Mr. PFHS? Jadd Davis led the band while riding backwards in a convertible.
Longtime resident and well-known senior citizen Bert Koentopp was inspired to join the parade at the last minute. Chief Hayes tried to wave him and his mural-covered RV through the intersection as the last of the fire trucks took to the street but when Bert said he wanted to be in the parade, the chief said, sure. And that’s the way the procession of nearly 100 entrants ended in Small Town, USA.
Waiting at the stop sign on Spokane Street last Saturday afternoon, as I was leaving Q’emlin Park, I spotted a banner advertising bare-root rose bushes on sale at Hughes Greenhouses, so I turned right instead of left.
The Hughes family has been growing spectacular roses in Post Falls for nearly 90 years so I jumped at the chance to own some of these locally grown plants and Howard Hughes was more than happy to load up 10 bushes for me.
In one of my more devious wifely maneuvers I promptly presented the plants to my husband for his birthday. How could he not be overjoyed to dig 10 holes for “his” rose bushes?
Post Falls High School graduate Kaley Koppa learned the skill that will be most valuable when she enters the work place … showing up. Kaley showed up at school every single day of her four years in high school to earn the Class of 2000 Perfect Attendance Award.
Actually, according to her mother, Kaley had perfect attendance for all years, K-12. But those kinds of records are kept only in the secondary grades.