It Happened at Seafair

It was a different time and a different town. There was a big airplane company but no technology.  The Smith Tower but no Space Needle. There were wrestling matches and roller derby and stock car racing, but no major league sports.  It was the nineteen fifties in Seattle and the biggest show in town was Seafair.

Seafair started in 1950 and quickly became Seattle’s premier event. There were neighborhood carnivals and parades with drill teams and marching bands, where Seafair Pirates roamed.  Floats carried princesses who perfected the wave to the crowds lining the streets and honorary parade marshalls included celebrities like Bob Hope and Bing Crosby.

But these were only the warm up to the Grand Finale. The Races.  Hydroplane, that is.

Every year Seafair climaxed with the Gold Cup races on Lake Washington, where racers were sports heroes like Bill Muncey and Myro Slovak and boats were named Slo-Mo IV, Gale V and Miss Bardahl.

And my husband was there to watch it.

One year, there was confusion over who won, Maverick or Miss Thriftway. As deliberations were going on he and his friends decided to head to the ‘pits’ to watch the winning driver be thrown into the lake.

Sayres Pits was swarming with boats and drivers, along with radio and TV personalities.  It was also protected by a chain link fence about 50 yards long – and the fence was guarded. They hadn’t planned on that, but knew they wanted to be on the other side. They decided to jump over the fence one by one in turn, when the guard was at the other end.

Delbert was first and made it over, followed by his little brother, Norman. Both disappeared into the crowd. Bobby watched until the officer was farthest away, then climbed up and over, but on his way back down his jeans caught on the fence. He landed on the other side and heard a loud pop. When he got up to run, his leg buckled beneath him and he heard a woman scream, “look at that boy’s leg!!”

Indeed, his leg was strangely bent and a wave of nausea hit him, along with the fear that he’d been caught. A crowd gathered round, and the police officer came to comfort him, then sent for a medic.

Soon the winning driver showed up, dripping wet. It was Bill Stead of the Maverick with these words, “I broke my leg when I was your age too.” Boys will be boys.

A few days later he was recuperating at home, his mom and grandma dressed up, waiting for the Sheriff to come, along with a reporter, who declared him the only casualty of the races that year.

There was some consolation when he saw himself on TV that night but he was stuck with a cast the rest of the summer.  He’d have to give up jumping over fences for a while.

~ Susanne