Nadeen Murphree with her hand-made Peach Festival Quilt
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Parker County for years for the Peach Festival.
The first year of the festival offered numerous peach-
themed attractions from a food contest to live music. The
festival held raffles, giving away great prizes for only $1 a
ticket.
“It’s a story where you only have to buy one ticket,
and that’s what I did,” said Elane Hardaway, whose fami-
ly owns Back to Yesterday Antiques. “They had a booth
set up by the Parker County [Sheriff’s] Posse, and they
were raffling off a baseball signed by Nolan Ryan, and
this was right after he had done his big thing. I bought
one ticket for one dollar, and I won. I have a little area
in my home where I have it on display. That’s my best
memory, and I love going to the peach festival.”
A beauty pageant for girls ages 3 to 19 was added
to the festivities, though the pageant is not now and
never has been an official part of the main festival.
Special buttons were made for the first Peach Festival to
commemorate this once free event.
The second Peach Festival, held July 12, 1986, had
already outgrown its original venue and could no longer
be held at the College Park Drive bank’s parking lot, and
the festival had to be moved to Weatherford High School.
(It’s now the Ninth-Grade Center.)
The 1986 Peach Festival kept all the original
festivities, including the pageant, this year crowning
Alice Aldridge queen. There were, however, a few
more interesting aspects added, like the Peach Eating
Contest and even a peach «pit» spitting contest. (Ah, the
pageantry.)
The festival remained at the high school until
1988 when it was moved into Weatherford’s Historic
Downtown Square, where it has been held every year
since. Though the festival has grown tremendously in
size, attendance and number of vendors, it still holds its
core theme — the love of peaches and all things peach-
like.
“The first year we were on the square, [Walter
Worthington] rented a refrigerator and [gave out] peach
drinks, and every hour on the hour they drew [names] for
a bushel of peaches,” said Jimmie Lawson.
“It was always a family affair and a huge deal for us
to go, said Paula Durant. It was never an option, we all
had to go.” As a child, I would go with my mom, grand-
mother and little sister,”
“We attended the year it came to the square and I
remember a lot of people. We would get a peach julep
and peach cobbler. There was always a lot of people who
brought their dogs out. I loved it and thought it was the
coolest thing ever. I do wish they’d had the mister that
they have now back then; that would have been nice.”
An arts and crafts festival, to this day all of the vendors
must have items that are homemade, handmade, or
hand-embellished in order to have a booth at the festi-
val. In fact, 70 percent of the items must be peachy. Big
companies are not allowed to use the Peach Festival to