NEW SALEM — Last year’s Old Home Day was the first since the pandemic, though there was one missing element that will make a return this time around.
“The big thing is the parade is back,” said Margie McGinnis, who chairs the Old Home Day Committee. “It’s a relaxed parade. Anybody can be in it.”
Church bells will ring out just before noon on Saturday, Sept. 13, to call citizens to the Veterans Memorial at the end of the town common between the 1794 Meetinghouse and the Town Hall Annex. At noon, there will be a reading of the memorial plaque featuring the rousing tale of how 1st Lt. William Stacy sparked New Salem’s participation in the American Revolution, followed by the parade around the common.
Old Home Day is officially scheduled for 10 a.m. to 3 p.m.
“I felt like we had a great day last year,” McGinnis recalled. “It was just a celebration of being in existence last year.”
The New Salem Museum and Academy of Fine Art will be open to the public for free, with Old Home Day’s first-ever beer and wine garden in the back.
This year’s festivities will once again feature a “Take the Cake” event. Interested bakers compete by making two identical cakes and registering them at the event. Cake lovers will sample each cake and vote for the cakes they would like to win. One voter’s ticket will be selected at random for every cake and that person gets to bring home the extra cake. The baker with the most votes will win $200.
Old Home Day will also consist of a New Salem-themed miniature golf course, with obstacles resembling some of the town’s landmark buildings, as well as music by the Bad News Jazz and Blues Orchestra, a petting zoo run by Duckworld of Montague, and a kickball tournament. There will also be foot tents, craft vendors, a trike race and a library book sale.
“Hopefully it’s a day with something for everybody,” McGinnis said.
