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Hardwick celebrates 2019 Jubilee Days

Lead Summary
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By
Mavis Fodness

Heat and humidity combined for a steamy Jubilee Days in Hardwick over the weekend.
Twenty-five parade entries rolled down Main Street Saturday evening as temperatures slowly dropped into the 80s from highs in the 90s earlier in the day.
Among the entries was the 2019 parade marshal Bill Holling, the oldest member of the Hardwick American Legion and, at age 96, the Post’s sole surviving World War II veteran.
He has been a member of the Hardwick American Legion Post 478 for 63 years. The national organization is also celebrating the 100th year since it was chartered in 1919.
One unique parade entry continued the celebration of a Hardwick couple’s 50th wedding anniversary.
Alon Hemme drove a 1937 Model A John Deere tractor with his wife, Eileen, at his side. The couple was married in June 1969.
Alon’s grandfather, Henry Hemme, purchased the tractor from Bieber Implement in Jasper. Henry traded a team of horses and some cash to make the purchase.
The tractor pulled a repurposed bale rack made from discarded sets of Montgomery Ward running gear.
The couple has three children and seven grandchildren. Family members and friends rode on the bale rack for the parade.
Rock County’s livestock industry was well represented in the parade.
Whitney Elbers, Hills, is the 2019 Rock-Nobles Cattlemen’s Association ambassador and handed out beef sticks on the parade route.
Hannah Kruse, Adrian, the Minnesota Hereford Association’s ambassador, also made a parade appearance.
She will represent Minnesota at the Hereford Nationals in Denver, Colorado, this week, and later this year will compete in the National Hereford Queen contest.
Nobles-Pipestone Dairy Association ambassador Katelyn Welegraven, Ruthton, shared string cheese in the parade.
Hardwick’s 2019 parade opened with a flyover from Rick Wenzel of rural Garretson, South Dakota, in his yellow aerial application plane.
While Saturday’s co-ed softball tournament was canceled, the community dinner, children’s inflatables, pedal pull and hay bale toss went on as scheduled.
The weekend celebration wrapped up Sunday morning with a community church service in the Zion Lutheran Church parking lot.

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