PORT HADLOCK — Despite a little rain, Hadlock Days brought out hosts of people to celebrate their ties to family and to place.
“We like to show our support for the community,” said Jill Paddock of Marrowstone Island.
“Our kids love it, even if they’re too big to go on the pony rides.”
Paddock comes every year to Hadlock Days with her husband, Rolly, who grew up on Marrowstone Island, and this year brought daughter Amanda and relatives from Arizona.
A revival of a community celebration formerly put on by the Lions Club, this year’s Hadlock Days offered traditional family entertainment, games and music.
Back by popular demand was the Keg Toss, which Chuck Russell, proprietor of Valley Tavern, started off with the traditional bugle call.
But despite the festival’s theme — “Iron Men and Wooden Ships” — it was the women who stepped up to the line to give the keg a heave.
“I was hard. I can’t get it over my head,” said 13-year-old Vanessa Guenther, who managed to toss the keg five feet.
Sara Brown of Port Ludlow, who won the women’s division of a keg toss in Idaho when she was 30 years old, said the kegs seem to have gotten heavier since then.
Commissioner’s toss
Glen Huntingford, Jefferson County commissioner, said bales of hay are easier to toss, but managed a credible throw of 19 feet, 10 inches.
It was bested by leftie Jeff Shaffett, owner of The Dog and I, who had never tossed a keg before.