JOYCE — Long before the BlackBerry became an electronic gizmo some of us can’t live without, Joyce was living it up on the real, juicy thing.
And the organizers of the 28th annual Joyce Daze Wild Blackberry Festival are steeped in fruit today, baking dozens upon dozens of pies for their annual block party, which takes over this community west of Port Angeles all day Saturday.
Joyce Daze, with festivities on state Highway 112 around the Joyce General Store, Joyce Depot Museum and Family Kitchen restaurant, starts with a pancake breakfast from 7 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Crescent Grange, 50734 Highway 112.
Among the earliest birds serving at that event will be the Joyce Daze teen royalty — Queen Mikela Williams and princesses Bonny Hazelett and Kailee Rose.
Beard, mustache contest
Then comes the annual beard and mustache contest, with sign-ups from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. at the Family Kitchen, and judging at noon.
Hairy men are evaluated for the fullness and handsomeness of their mustaches, beards or goatees, and there’s a fourth division titled “anything goes,” said Jane Childers, organizer of the competition.
In past years, “we’ve had 20 to 30 entrants,” she added.
This year, “I do know people are coming from out of town, from Olympia and Bremerton,” to get into the contest.
The grand prize is a carving of a Lake Crescent Beardsley trout, and a mixed bag of prizes will be presented to first- through fourth-place winners in each of the four divisions.
The winners will be chosen in time for the parade — which is bigger than usual, said Joyce Daze organizer Kathy Walton.
More than 70 floats and other entries will flow down Highway 112 from 1 p.m. to 2 p.m., she said.
The parade route, on the highway between the Joyce Depot Museum and Wye Road, will be closed to traffic between 12:30 p.m. and 2:30 p.m. A detour will be available.
Dignitaries in the parade include Grand Pioneers Sylvia and Dianne Durrwachter, identical twins who moved to Joyce in 1946, when they were 4-year-olds.
And though Sylvia says she’s not wild about the idea of being a Grand Pioneer, she does get a kick out of the festival.
“I like the community spirit of the whole thing,” she said, adding that Joyce Daze brings groups — the Lions, the Grange, the church members — out to focus on one thing together.
Growing up in the woods
Growing up in the woods along the Strait of Juan de Fuca was sweet as wild honey, Sylvia added.
“From Freshwater Bay to Camp Hayden was our playground . . . We fished off the rocks at Agate Beach; we’d have a wonderful time, and then come home for dinner.”
The people of Joyce, she said, “are independent and self-reliant, and very helpful to each other.”
That’ll be clear Saturday, when the Joyce Daze committee brings out their freshly baked blackberry pies, to sell by the slice with ice cream if you like. No whole pies will be sold until after 3 p.m., Walton said, and then only if there are any left.
Live music
Live music will pour from the Joyce Daze stage from 9:30 a.m. on, thanks to master of ceremonies Dave Secord.
He’s lined up Ruby and Friends to play until 10 a.m., Robert the Scottish drummer from Olympia for the 10 a.m. to 11 a.m. slot, the Naki’i Hawaiian music duo and dancers from 11 a.m. to noon and harmonica master Andy Mackie from noon until 1 p.m. Mackie — founder of the Andy Mackie Foundation in Quilcene, which has provided music and instruments to thousands of children — plans to leave for Michigan in September.
After the parade, the Olympic Mountain Cloggers will dance from 2 p.m. until 2:30 p.m., and finally Dave and Rosalie Secord and friends will play from 2:30 p.m. until about 4 p.m. Also right after the parade, “we have a cheering contest: men against the women,” Rosalie said.”It’s everybody who’s out in the audience, and it’s a roar.”
Dave Secord has been bringing together musicians at Joyce Daze for 20 years, she added.
And Walton, who’s been helping Joyce Daze happen for nearly that long, said it’s still a real celebration of rural life.
“No glitz. No glamor. It’s just small-town America,” she said. And in the 27 years leading to this one, it has never rained on Joyce Daze, Walton added. “It’s been cold,” she said, and “we’ve had scorchers.”
The forecast for Saturday calls for clouds in the morning, then sunshine in time for the parade.
Blackberry pie contest
Saturday’s festivities also include the homemade blackberry pie contest — sponsored by the Peninsula Daily News — beginning at 11 a.m.
Pies for the competition can be dropped off between 9 a.m. and 10:45 a.m. at the Joyce Depot Museum.
Pies have to be made from the small, wild blackberries found in the Joyce area.
Prizes are $50 for first place, $25 for second place and $25 for third place.
The Crescent Bay Lions Club salmon bake runs from 11:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the Joyce minimart, and family games, from 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the Family Kitchen Restaurant.
From 1 p.m. to 4 p.m., Clallam County Fire District No. 4 and the Lower Elwha Klallam Police Department will give demonstrations and free blood pressure checks and provide refreshments at the minimart.
An antique truck and car display will be set up outside the Joyce Grange.
A drawing for cash prizes comes at 3:30 p.m. at the Joyce Depot Museum, from the raffle tickets people can buy during the day for $1 each.
First prize is $100, second is $50 and third prize is $25. Proceeds from ticket sales help the Joyce Daze committee award scholarships to local high school students.
Grand Marshal
The 2010 Grand Marshal of Joyce Daze, Willy Lou Lawrence, summed up her feelings about the festival.
“They have everything,” she said: food, neighbors and music, and “everybody seems to know each other.” Many remember Lawrence, who moved here in 1946, as the proprietor of the Willy Lou’s children’s, teen and women’s clothing shops in downtown Port Angeles from the ’40s into the late ’80s.
Lawrence will mark her 90th birthday on Aug. 19 — and celebrate a little early on Saturday by riding in the parade.
“You’ll see the Joyce Daze girls,” Mikela, Bonny and Kailee, “and I’m the old woman,” she said.
“It’s a happy, happy time … I’m a happy person, and I just want to live forever.”
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Features Editor Diane Urbani de la Paz can be reached at 360-417-3550 or at diane.urbani@peninsuladailynews.com.
