Sound the Drums, Houston Celebrates 50th

HOUSTON — From the parade of crazy cars and funny costumes to the pork rinds being sold in the corner, there was plenty to do at Houston’s Founder’s Day festivities, as the town celebrated its 50th year Saturday night.

From the start of the parade you could see the town takes their parade to a new level. Churches, fire trucks, old pickup trucks and families walking in a long line. Even Waldo, the beloved hide and go seek champion was in on the fun. The road was blocked of for this event as long lines built up on either side as the parade marched on. It was their time to shine.

The live music filled the air as the band Element 47 played for the crowd to enjoy. They have been playing at the Founder’s Day fair for four years, and they were playing the 80’s classics with a bit of their own twist.

“It’s amazing; we’ve been doing it now for four years, and every year it gets baetter and better.” said the manager of Element 47 Rocky Murrill. “It’s great time for activity for the adults and kids both.”

This type of event means a lot to the community with a lot of people coming together to celebrate their history. From people selling their wares to others, to the food trucks selling tacos to the people of Houston.

“Houston Founder’s Day has been going on now 15 years, I was told.” said Murrill. “For this community to have an event like this, it’s a huge event that the people can get involved in, in this community. You can look at the people we’ve got, I’ve heard anywhere from two to 3,000 people that attend this every year. It doesn’t matter if it rains, they love the event, the activities, the kids. There’s dance studios over here that dance, they’ve got all kinds of activities. Just a good family event,”

One of those events was the dunk tank, which was run by the Houston High football team. With kids lining up to hit the button that dunked the players into the water tank. One of those players, Wyatt Mulhaney, watched as a young girl ran up and pushed the button as he fell down. There was no sadness to falling, as the crowd around laughed as so did Mulhaney for this event was for the kids.

“It’s really great, it’s awesome for the community to come out and participate with everyone. Everyone gets to have a fun time. It’s easy going, it’s really nice,” Mulhaney said. “Actually, this is my first year doing the dunk tank, which is pretty fun. Last year, we came down and did parades, we helped out.”

For Houston residents, this Founder’s Day was special for them as it celebrated 50 years as a town. From the older generation playing the music to fill the air, to the high schoolers running games like the dunk tank for the kids to enjoy. It is the sense of community that Houston likes to strive for, what it was built on. They aren’t connected to another big town like Wasilla and Palmer are. It is Houston and their Founder’s Day celebration.

“It just shows that we’re a strong community, and no matter what, no matter how long this is that we can still come together, and have fun, and show support for everyone.” said Mulhaney.