By James Beaty
During tough times, where can you find a heaping bowl of beans and cornbread for 25 cents, and then stick around for an old-fashioned roadhouse dance?
At Hartshorne, during the town’s annual Hard Times Day Festival — which is the annual event the town holds to celebrate the spirit of camaraderie and helping others that Americans demonstrated in the 1930s during the Great Depression.
Most of the Hard Times Festival activities are set for Saturday, but it opens with a couple of events on Friday.
The Poor Man’s Supper, with the quarter beans and cornbread, is set for 6:30 p.m. on Friday at Catholic Hall, 912 Cherokee Ave. To get there from McAlester, just turn left, or north, at the first stoplight in Hartshorne, and continue north on Ninth Street for a few blocks.
Following the supper, the Kountry Kowboys will be playing music from 8 until 11 p.m. for the roadhouse dance.
Most of the day’s activities are centered on Saturday, with games, food and music featured, along with various displays, crafts and other items of interest.
Saturday kicks off with a biscuits and gravy breakfast from 7 until 10 a.m. hosted by the Twin Cities Veterans of Foreign Wars and Ladies Auxiliary, held at the First Christian Church Fellowship Hall at Tenth Street and Lehigh Avenue, which is just south of the stoplight on Tenth Street.
The Granny Hard Times Contest is set at the bandstand at the corner of Pennsylvania Avenue and Tenth Street at 12:30 p.m., where local residents do their best to dress up as a granny having hard times in the 1930s. Those who want to participate can sign up at the bandstand just before the event.
Music will be ongoing for much of the day, with performers on the downtown bandstand.
Depression-era music will be performed live at The Hartshorne Sun office in downtown Hartshorne at 11 a.m.
Meanwhile, The Zero Radius and Ice Cream Boy Marauding Acoustic Guitar Duo will be taking it to the streets.
On Saturday night, a talent show will be held at 6:45 at The Liberty Theatre in downtown Hartshorne. Sign-up will be all day long at the downtown bandstand.
Following the talent show, a special Hard Times Show will be held at the Liberty Theatre, with admission by donation.
Old time children’s games will be hosted by the Twin Cities Youth Center on the Lawn of Bishop’s Funeral Home on Pennsylvania Avenue.
Also on Saturday, a quilt show will be held at the former Grand Leaders building in downtown Hartshorne.
Food vendors will abound at the festival on Saturday. They include fried pies and corn chips with chili, and sweet goodies from the Haileyville Assembly of God, chili and beans from the Hartshorne Assembly of God and other food items available from the Jack Fork Assembly of God.
Restaurants in Hartshorne and Haileyville will also be open for the festival, with some of them offering Hard Times Days specials.
Many other items and displays will be available during the festival, with the organizers of the event inviting those from the surrounding area to come and join in the Hard Times Day celebration.
Contact James Beaty at jbeaty@mcalesternews.com.
