It appears the older lady in the center of this troupe has a greater appreciation of this performance than many of the younger participants. Maybe the younger participants are also afforded the opportunity during the week to pick the damn things.

Buzz on 19th December 2014 @ 7:57am

Could this also be connected to May Day?
My mother in law was May Day Queen in her teenage years. Photos show the girls wearling similar dresses as they danced around the May Pole.

On second thought, probably not. May first would be too early for a good crop of strawberries.

l.e. on 19th December 2014 @ 8:01am

The only strawberry festival I ever knew of was right out in the middle that strawberry row. May Day celebrations used to be quite the event. I know my great-aunt Florence was crowed "Queen of the May" when she was 16, so I assume that would have been Hood River High School. I have the poem that my great-grandfather wrote to her about it.

I vaguely recall when I was very small and Pine Grove Grade still had all 8 grades, before 7th and 8th was sent to Mid Valley the older girls dancing around and wrapping the pole.

I agree with Buzz, they don't look too zealous about what they are involved in. Yuck.........

One of my cousins when we were picking berries told this girl that was fair and burnt so bad that if she smeared strawberries over all exposed areas that she wouldn't burn. She fell for it, and smearing she went. Can you imagine spending the day swaddled in berry juice? She still burnt and the bugs and bees loved her. She was suppose to ride home with us, but my mother informed her she wasn't getting the car. So she jumped in the ditch to wash that dried sweet mess off herself. We still laugh about that episode in the berry patch.

Charlott on 19th December 2014 @ 8:14am

And a berry good time was had by all.

Kenn on 19th December 2014 @ 10:14am

Maybe having to hold that pose for so long caused the looks on the faces of the younger young women.

nels on 19th December 2014 @ 11:48am

The girl near the center, with the dark hair that looks like it's a "dutch boy" cut, looks very much like my mother, Doris Davenport. She was born in 1911, was very pretty and small for her age, and this looks like other photos of her when she was 15 or 16. She also was regularly involved in things like this, and was in all the dramatic and musical productions that the high school put on. Emory and Nellie Davenport's daughter, she was sort of the "little princess" of that family, and I've heard that she was a bit of a handful for them, including such things as riding to Portland on the back of her boy friend's motorcycle in about 1928, before she met my father. The expression on her face is her "show-off" look. The girl right in front of her in the foreground looks very much like her sister Jessica, who was a little over 2 years younger than Doris, and was a real "tag-along" and not nearly as pretty. Probably not them, but the pics sure struck me as such.

Jerry Larsen on 19th December 2014 @ 3:33pm

I found this little bit in the May 22, 1926 Chicago Packer:
Hood River, Ore., May 21. June 11 has been set as the date for the Upper Valley Strawberry Festival at Parkdale. Miss Alta Easier, daughter of Charles Easier, orchardist, has been named queen of the festival.

l.e. on 19th December 2014 @ 9:07pm