VALLEY BREEZE OBITS DRIVERS

While many businesses and organizations host events, there is still a lot of work that needs to be done. Currently, the Old Home Days Committee has seven members, but it could use 15. “It’s down to a very small committee and people that are 80 years old and getting tired,” said Rocke, of Orange, who has helped organize the event for more than 40 years. Helen Rocke, one of those organizers, said there is a need for newer - and younger - volunteers to step up to help run the event. Still, one important tradition is slow to trickle through the generations: organizing the event itself. Many activities that have been going on for decades like the Soap Box Derby, the breakfast at the Masonic Hall and the Belt Sander Race at Canaan Hardware have become multigenerational. Tradition is the unofficial theme of every Canaan Old Home Days. She came in first for the second year in a row. “She gets excited because she wants to race like her dad.”Ĭora’s father participated in the Soap Box Derby, and the cars have been passed down through multiple family members, getting new paint jobs along the way. “I think this is a great tradition,” said Cora’s mom, Christa Robert.

VALLEY BREEZE OBITS DRIVERS

A wall of hay bales is set up in case the drivers need help stopping. Then they go flying down the hill on High Street and across Route 118, where a Canaan police officer stops traffic, to On the Common Lane, where the racers hit their brakes. Two participants, wearing helmets, climb in the cars and hold on, before a member of the Canaan Lions Club releases a lever. The soap box cars are perched on a ramp, held up by small metal barriers. “The breeze,” Cora said, is her favorite part. The 6-year-old from Grafton had won the race last year and, after getting in some practice runs at Mascoma Valley Regional High School, was looking forward to the race, an annual event during Canaan Old Home Days. PattersonĬANAAN - Cora Robert showed up at the Soap Box Derby ready to defend her title. May not be reprinted or used online without permission. Perkins sells pillows, doll clothes and sweaters as a hobby. Send requests to Perkins, of White River Junction, reads a book behind his wife, Joyce's booth at Canaan, N.H., Old Home days on Saturday, Aug. He grew up in Canaan and returns annually to see family and old friends at the event. In 2019 he won the races and was runner-up in 2021. 'I did this for 10 years and lost every year,' but he has improved over the last few years, said Caraway. Rick Paulsen, of Canaan, left, and Keegan Caraway, of Troy, N.Y., right, watch as Caraway's belt-sander, The Tortoise, speeds toward a win over Dan Blackmore's Buck during the belt-sander races at Canaan, N.H., Old Home Days on Saturday, Aug. Golkin and his sander topped with a plastic toy truck, won the double elimination tournament. PattersonĪvery Golkin, 9, of Canaan and New York City, in red, and Alex Bosse, 11, of Grafton, in blue, run after Golkin's racing belt-sander, dubbed Big Blue Yellow, during the races sponsored by Canaan Hardware during Old Home Days on Saturday, Aug. Send requests to Valley News photographs - James M. 'I love this because I get to see people that I know, or my parents knew,' she said.(Valley News - James M. Dorr peruses old photos from the school during the annual alumni meeting. Linda Dorr, a 1974 Mascoma graduate, drove from her home in Batavia, Ill., to visit her home town of Canaan, N.H., for Old Home Days.

Valley breeze obits