Astoria Regatta Celebrating 125 years of community and tradition HISTORY OF ASTORIA REGATTA Matriarchy marches on Celebrating 125 years of Regatta royalty BY LUCY KLEINER W hen Marilyn Gustafson was 18 years old, she rode into Astoria on a huge, royal elephant. The year was 1953, and the carnival in town was the biggest celebration in the county – the Astoria Regatta. Gustafson wore a dainty crown on her head and a long dress that flowed to her feet. One of the circus workers leaned a ladder against the animal’s rough skin, and the elephant keeper pulled her up on its back. “I climbed up, and the two of us rode the elephant,” Gustafson said. “I sat right on the back of its forehead.” Together they marched through downtown, Gustafson high on the elephant’s back in her royal Regatta attire. Community members gathered and called out her name while she greeted them. Her dad snapped a photo on their old film camera. “You get that wave on your hand,” she said. Gustafson, now 84, is one of the oldest living Regatta queens. That was 66 years ago. While the circus no longer comes to town and film negatives have been replaced by smartphone cameras, Regatta queens still ride through Astoria, greeting Clatsop County in the same way. “It’s called the ‘elbow-elbow-wrist-wrist,’” said current Regatta Queen Catherine Tapales, 17. Tapales spent the last two years running around the county working on public speeches and perfecting the parade wave, like the many Regatta queens before her. On Wednesday, Aug. 7, through Saturday, Aug. 10, the community will join together in royal celebration for the 125th time. Community members will walk, drive and fly to the northern coast to celebrate their home, neighbors and the people who built the town. It will also be an evening of emotion and history, as the 125th Regatta Queen is crowned at the Queen’s Coronation. It’s one of the oldest festivals west of the Rocky Mountains, and in the state. 10 • ASTORIA REGATTA 2019 Astoria Regatta Queen Rachelle Sims (1995) Astoria Regatta Queen Lydia Seabold (1952) Regatta and its queens have survived the tests of history. They have seen both world wars come and go, watched flames swallow the city and welcomed more than a century of fishing boats home. Nelson started the fund with her husband. When she was on the court 38 years ago, each princess was awarded $200. “It was something we wanted to do to honor the queens and the extra hard work they do,” Nelson said. Changing with the times While the festival continues to recognize young women for their dedication to the community, a lot has changed, too. When Lydia Seabold was crowned in 1952, the first queen after WWII, she used a telephone operator to call her girlfriends before they met at the soda fountain at Lawson’s Confectionery. Patti Nelson, the 1981 queen, and her friends would fold little paper notes up and pass them in the hall with times to meet at the Tapiola swimming pool. “We didn't have Google maps,” Nelson said. “Everyone knew where everyone lived.” Rachelle Sims, crowned in 1995, still remembers the day her stepdad installed her own personal landline in the house so chats with her friends wouldn’t tie up the family’s business calls. “We used an actual, real life, on the wall landline,” Sims said. Today, Tapales uses Snapchat to reach her friends. The ceremony has evolved over the years. One of the biggest changes: the queen’s bonus. In addition to the $4,000 awarded to each princess, an additional $1,500 scholarship is granted to the queen to help cover the cost of college and reward her for another year of work with Regatta. Memorizing speeches Being a Regatta queen is no easy task, especially for a high school senior. It’s a year of 4 a.m. wakeup calls, civic projects and stressful speeches. “They’re very bright young ladies who really grow during their time on court,” said Charlene Larsen, who served as Regatta President in 1995 and has worked with the festival for 49 years. “It’s amazing to see just how accomplished these ladies are.” No matter the decade they were crowned, every queen remembers the public speaking that accompanied the tiaras. Part of the requirement of the Regatta court is that the speeches are memorized by the Queen’s Coronation. “I think the public speaking was a great asset to me personally,” Nelson said. “I didn't really anticipate benefiting from it that way.” The young women spend months drilling the presentation into their brains. Sims remembers speeches from multiple girls on her court. Nelson can still recite her opening line. “I am the Astor Column … ” Astoria Regatta Queen Catherine Tapales (2018) Gustafson, the Regatta Queen from 1953, will make the trip back to Astoria from Portland for the festival. She still talks on the phone with Seabold every other day. Tapales, who will soon wrap up her time with Regatta, recalls the first speech she had to do as a member of the court. “I didn’t have my speech memorized yet so I had it on notecards,” she said. “I remember I was trembling, and I was trying not to drop my notecards. It was really scary.” By the time coronation came around, she knew every word of her speech. “They’re very bright young ladies who really grow during their time on court,” said Charlene Larsen who served as Regatta President in 1995 and has worked with the festival for 49 years. ASTORIA REGATTA 2019 • 11