Aw, Shucks : For 49 Years, La Habra Residents Have Shown a Hearty Appetite for a Trip to the Corn Festival

LA HABRA — As it has every summer for five decades, this city again is honoring the crop it has never grown.

Thousands of residents are expected this weekend to pay sweet tribute to corn, though the feast was grown hundreds of miles away in a different time zone. This year, 13,500 ears of corn, still in their husks, were shipped from a Colorado grower by way of a Los Angeles market.

The delivery arrived Friday, a few hours before the 49th annual Corn Festival began its three-day run. The girls of La Habra High School’s volleyball teams spent the day shucking it.

“This shucks,” quipped 15-year-old Taryn Moore as she, her teammates and other volunteers worked through the afternoon.

It doesn’t matter that the golden kernels aren’t home-grown, festival organizer Gary D. Bird said, “because it’s always the best there is.”

The festival grew from a 1948 parade and square dance by the La Habra Host Lions Club to raise money for charity. Many of the club’s members were from the Midwest, and their memories of the Corn Belt inspired the idea of selling bowls of the grain at their fund-raiser.

The idea caught on, the event grew, and more than a dozen civic and charitable groups now participate. Lions Club members still sell the corn, but it’s no longer served in bowls. Now it is left on the cob.

Dave Coffin, a longtime festival-goer and volunteer, said the festival is this small city’s big event.

“This is a time for people to see their neighbors and old friends that they haven’t seen since last year,” he said as he prepared the gas cooker for the first batch of corn Friday.

The ears are boiled by the hundreds for eight minutes, skewered on wooden sticks and dipped in melted margarine. They will sell this year for $1 apiece.

“I remember when I bought my first ear of corn here in 1964. It was 10 cents. I loved it, and I kept coming back,” Coffin said. “I usually eat four or five.”

Organizers said they hope to raise at least $45,000 for youth programs at this year’s event, which features not just food but also carnival rides and games.

The parade and festival are part of La Habra’s heritage, said Bill Graham, 65, another volunteer.

“It’s become a part of life here. Everybody participates,” he said. “I’ve been attending since I was 25 years old. It’s a great deal of fun.”

Though more than 60,000 people are expected at El Centro-Lions Park for this year’s festival, which continues through Sunday, the event has not lost its small-town atmosphere.

Residents say that is its appeal.

“It’s popular because it’s a community thing with a carnival and parade. It’s middle America,” resident Suzi Spencer said.

Longtime resident Marie Knox, who has taken her children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren to the festival, said, “It is corny. But it’s fun.”

Randy McMillan went to his first festival in 1959 and was so impressed by the town’s atmosphere and friendliness that he moved here from Whittier.

“It’s the corniest place on Earth,” he said Friday as he helped with preparations for the weekend crowds. “Disneyland ain’t got nothing on us.”

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Festival Highlights

La Habra’s 49th annual corn festival begins today and runs through the weekend. Highlights:

TODAY

* 9:30 a.m. Parade

* 2 p.m. Country and western band Loose Change, El Centro Park

* 7 p.m. Country and western band Krystal

* 11 p.m. Park closes

SUNDAY

* 11:30 a.m. Country and western band Rusty Nails, El Centro Park

* 3 p.m. Country and western band Buffalo Brewing Company

* 8 p.m. Park closes

Source: La Habra Host Lions Club