DAY 1 – Arrival and Proclamation

After facing near-zero amounts of traffic, including an almost unheard of drought of passengers trying to cross the border into the United States, my mother and I arrived in Jamestown just in time for the proclamation.

We scored a great parking spot near the stage door to the Reg Lenna Civic Centre and made our way to Tracy Plaza for the festivities. I could hear the Chautauqua Regional Youth Symphony striking up. Rounding the corner from Pine Street onto Third Street, I could see Charlie off in the distance. After meeting up with Charlie and Shelly (who it turns out was just a few steps away from Charlie at the information kiosk), we arrived onto Tracy Plaza to – as observed by Charlie – the “Beef, It’s What’s For Dinner” theme song. Meg and her parents had already staked out a prime position on the plaza so we met up with them and I just observed people arriving.

His Groovy-ness Dann Cahn (pictured above, naturally!) was flying solo and arrived on the plaza shortly after we did. Diane Vincent and Rhonda Medina -- as “Lucy” and “Ethel” respectively – soon followed him, as did Jamestown Mayor Sam Teresi from the opposite direction.

(Rhonda Medina and Diane Vincent as "Ethel" and "Lucy")

Then Jimmy Sheridan (the real one, not impostor dubbed by John Schillner as “Jimmy Sheridan Junior”) and his parents arrived and our party was complete!

Ric Wyman arrived a little while later and then – and I missed the exact reason why – Mayor Teresi took cover, hiding behind Charlie. Literally. We have proof.

After the Mayor was coaxed out from behind Charlie, the proclamation proceeded with the Mayor giving a brief speech, and this was followed by a speech by Wyman and a rundown of the weekend’s events.

(The Mayor and Ric)

After this, we briefly went out separate ways. Shelly and Charlie went off, as did Meg and her parents, and we went to the box office to get our tickets and walk over to the collector’s show to case the joint. Jimmy came with us as he was heading in that direction to go to the Liberace lunch in the Tropicana Room.

I decided to sit that one out to unwind a bit after a long drive. But we couldn’t unwind for too long, we had a boat to catch! Celoron doesn’t have a pilot boat to catch up with the Summer Wind.