Newfield Old Home Days continues to grow

By Jamie Swinnerton
Tompkins Weekly

 

Since making its return in 1972 the Newfield Old Home Days have continued to be a community-centered event with a goal of bringing neighbors and friends together to celebrate their shared love of Newfield. This year will be no different in that regard but will have a few new elements largely aimed at entertaining a younger crowd.

The two-day event will begin the evening of Friday, July 27 with food from the Newfield Lion’s Club, some pickup basketball, free live music, and a pie baking contest, a new addition to the festivities. The night will cap off with a screening of the movie “Back to the Future” at 7:30 p.m. in honor of this year’s theme.

“Every year we try to honor something important in Newfield,” said Judy Horton, a member of the Newfield Old Home Days planning committee. “We’ve honored the firemen, and we’ve honored the police people, and we’ve honored the military, and different schools and the churches, and we were running out of ideas.”

While brainstorming at an Old Home Days meeting a member came up with the idea to honor the Newfield of days gone by, alongside the Newfield of today. On the event booklet will be a picture of the World War II era Tommy plane that has been lovingly restored over the last several years by local aviation enthusiasts.

Along with the pie baking contest, which will have an adult entry and a youth entry, Old Home Days will feature one of the greatest kid attractors known to man: video games. A tractor-trailer full of around 16 screens dedicated to video games will be parked in the school parking lot for several hours Saturday afternoon starting at 5:30 p.m. Horton found out about the Syracuse company, Games on a Roll after one of the trucks was at her grandson’s recent birthday. The event continues to evolve within its budget to be an interesting one for all ages.

“Part of the problem is that we do not have carnival rides so we try to do things that we can afford to do that are fun for the kids,” Horton said. “If we ever build up enough money to do the rides again we certainly would like to do that, but it is a question of finances.”

For several years now, the kids have been kept busy and occupied after the parade Saturday morning by looking for a golden egg that holds a $10 bill. The committee makes sure to hide it well to keep them occupied for a while.

“It’s taken them hours to find it, we hide it pretty good,” Horton said.

In the early part of the 1900s, Horton said the event used to be called Town Picnic, but it would continue to grow as the town grew until it just stopped. But the event was resurrected in 1972 the year the town celebrated 150 years, its sesquicentennial.

“From that point on we have just grown with ideas and different people have come and gone on the committee, but some of the originals are still around and any new people who are interested we would love to have more help on the committee,” Horton said. “It’s kind of a celebration of Newfield and it’s a community day.”

The committee could use some newcomers, Horton said. Currently, it’s about eight people doing the work of 50 to make Newfield Old Home Days happen each year.

“We don’t have young people on there and we would like young people with new ideas,” Horton said.

The parade might be the highlight of the event. Community members of all stripes walk the mile through town. Horton herself dresses as a clown, but other groups in the parade include the Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, Cub Scouts, the fire company, Kazoo Band, and 4-H groups, among many others. Some of the activities happening all day on Saturday include Dan the Reptile Man, bounce house, cake wheel, and vendors of all kinds, including food. Saturday night don’t miss the fireworks display from American Fireworks set to go off at 9 p.m.

A tradition that has been happening since the first Old Home Day during the sesquicentennial is the ping pong ball drop. Originally a “borrowed” idea from the Town of Spencer picnic, the drop will happen at 4 p.m. on Saturday over the Newfield Central School football field. A local pilot will fly over the field to drop 300 ping pong balls to be collected by local kids. Prizes will be given out to the collectors of certain ping pong balls if they pick up the right ball. Over the years different local pilots have taken over the job to keep the tradition going.
For more information, visit the newfieldoldhomedays.org.