ALMOND FESTIVAL BLOSSOMS.Byline: Bhavna Mistry Daily News Staff Writer Taking advantage of a golden opportunity to relive re·live v. re·lived, re·liv·ing, re·lives v.tr. To undergo or experience again, especially in the imagination. v.intr. To live again. history, Lancaster resident Kay Shryock Hjelm pulled out her photo albums and dusted off her crown. The 62-year-old woman who was crowned Miss Quartz Hill in 1953 joined eight other former queens who smiled and waved atop a stagecoach stagecoach, heavy, closed vehicle on wheels, usually drawn by horses, formerly used to transport passengers and goods overland. Throughout the Middle Ages and until about the end of the 18th cent. during a parade at the Quartz Hill Almond Blossom Festival The Almond Blossom Festival is an annual arts, social, and entertainment festival held every year on the first weekend of August at Willunga, South Australia, Australia. . ``It was fun to be queen again,'' said Hjelm. ``This brings back a lot of memories.'' Hjelm spoke of how her mother was a school teacher and she and her family lived in a house on the school grounds, which is now Quartz Hill Elementary School elementary school: see school. . ``It was small and friendly,'' she said. ``Everybody in Quartz Hill knew everybody else. Everyone pulled together.'' Hjelm moved to Quartz Hill in 1950 when she was 13 years old. She was born in Texas and as a young girl who admired flowers found the desert disturbing. ``In the '50s, there was hardly anything here,'' she said. ``But the almond blossoms were beautiful, they were all in bloom.'' Her grandfather had entered her in the competition but never saw her take the prize. He died a week before she was crowned. Hjelm and the other queens along with past Quartz Hill Chamber of Commerce presidents were honored during the 50th Anniversary of the Almond Blossom Festivals. ``These are the people who had to do with the past building of Quartz Hill,'' said Jan Tatangelo, current president of the Quartz Hill Chamber of Commerce. ``We wanted to get as many people as we could.'' Officials said the golden celebration brought out a crowd of more than 1,500 people. ``It's the largest we'd had in a while,'' said Tatangelo. At one time the Almond Blossom Festival attracted as many as 25,000 people who would come from all across Los Angeles Los Angeles (lôs ăn`jələs, lŏs, ăn`jəlēz'), city (1990 pop. 3,485,398), seat of Los Angeles co., S Calif.; inc. 1850. County to witnesses the white and slightly pinkish blossoms with a light aroma that filled the community's hillside, said Tatangelo. CAPTION(S): 3 Photos PHOTO (1--Color) Kathleen Youngstrom, 5, pulls her goat at the festival. (2-3--Color) David Freiberg David Freiberg (born August 24, 1938, Cincinnati, Ohio) is an American musician, vocalist, and bass guitar player with Quicksilver Messenger Service and Jefferson Starship. Career Freiberg founded Quicksilver Messenger Service with John Cipollina. , 4, holds a llama llama (lä`mə), South American domesticated ruminant mammal, Lama glama, of the camel family. Genetic studies indicate that it is descended from the guanaco. named Magic, above, as he waits for the annual Almond Blossom Pet Parade to start Saturday morning in Quartz Hill. At left, Dutchess, a Dalmatian-Husky mix, pokes her head under the parade banner before the show begins. Hans Gutknecht/Daily News |
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