THURSDAY, AUGUST 8, 2019 // 9
Courtesy Astoria Regatta
A float in the 1911 Regatta parade celebrating the centennial of Astoria.
Continued from Page C8
To celebrate, the board designed a
window display that highlights seg-
ments of the Regatta’s past in the for-
mer Thiel’s Music space on the corner
of 14th and Commercial Streets.
Board member Melba O’Bryant’s
handiwork is featured in one of the
windows: a photo of a recent court
dressed to match a massive cloth clown
in colorful, polka-dot jackets.
O’Bryant remembered sowing all the
jackets with a friend for the float. The
fabric covered her entire living room.
Kennell was overwhelmed but not
surprised by the help she received from
neighbors while setting up the win-
dows. One display features a manne-
quin in a classic 20th century Anchor
Club uniform.
That mannequin was donated from
a nearby store owner during the dis-
play’s setup.
“Only a small community takes care
of you like that,” Kennell said. “Every-
body steps up and helps for Regatta.”
Behind the windows, visitors can
also see a 1936 silver baton used in
Regatta parades, a plaque dedicated to
the Astoria Drum and Bugle Corps from
the Rose Festival and yellowing news-
paper clippings from past coronations.
“If you have a history of an event,
and you have a tangible history in those
photographs and identifiers,” Larsen
said, “then you get the whole story.”
“What you did in the past helps the
future vision of a community,’’ Larsen
said. “If you don’t know where you
came from, how in the world do you
know where you’re going?” CW
Passersby
look at the
decorated
windows
of Regatta
memorabilia
in the former
Thiel’s Music
space at
the corner
of 14th and
Commercial
Streets in
Astoria.