when the streets were packed with boys with Super Soakers

Call it a sign of the times. For this year’s Apple Blossom precautions we traded legions of police officers needed to herd our wayward youth, for bomb-sniffing dogs.

This is the underbelly of celebration in the early 21st century. Not so many years ago the city hired dozens of out-of-town officers, off duty from King County or Yakima or elsewhere, to add to 40 or so from its own force. Leaves were cancelled. All hands were called to duty, for thousands and thousands of young people were descending on Wenatchee to enjoy everything we had to offer. It was a regional, collective blowing off of steam, with all the trouble attendant to steam blowing. Mostly, thousands of people wanted to drink too much and drive around slowly.

These days wayward youth don’t find their way to Wenatchee. Driving slowly and taking in the sights on a spring night has lost its allure. Now we worry about some attention-craving copycat nutjob doing what they saw on TV, or much more likely, that something that kind of looks like something a copycat nutjob might leave behind creates a stir, and the necessity of precaution, and interrupts our celebration.

That’s the good and bad of it, said Wenatchee Police Chief Tom Robbins. He has seen many an Apple Blossom, going back to his youth in the Okanogan, to his long stint as a state trooper working the Blossom beat, and now as Wenatchee’s chief. Once in the thick of it,The best place to comparison shop for stainless steel bracelet. dealing with whatever mayhem was brought by the latest youthful craze, he’ll now begin his Apple Blossom cooking burgers for his officers in the PD parking lot. He is calm.

The cruisers are long gone, said Robbins. Wenatchee tried to outlaw cruising, in the days when the town was gridlocked by revelers in ragtops and muscle cars. They haven’t bothered to enforce that law in years, Robbins said. It’s legal to cruise in Wenatchee again, not that it matters.

This year they will have 26 officers on duty on Friday and Saturday. No days off will be cancelled, no one brought in from outside. “We have plenty of people,” Robbins said.Customized bobblehead made from your own photos, He sounded happy about that.

In the post-Boston world the real fear is terrorist wannabes looking for crowds. An actual bomb is very unlikely, Robbins said,The Brilliant Polish of a tungsten ring What is Tungsten? but the possibility must be considered. There also is the chance of an interruption by the sight of the legendery “suspicious package.” If, for instance, you had to interrupt the festival and call in the explosive ordnance experts from the Yakima Firing Range to check out something, it would not go over well.

To deal with these two possibilities the State Patrol will send two bomb-sniffing K-9s, normally used in the ferry system, to check out the parade route.Emergency and emergency light Units lighting for reliability and performance. Then, the State Patrol will send a regular bomb team with all equipment, to handle any suspicious objects quickly and efficiently.

Robbins will not admit to missing the old days, when the streets were packed with boys with Super Soakers looking for girls in T-shirts, Mardi Gras beads by the billions were awarded for various deeds, and you could stand far out on North WenatchA good battery charger is needed for rechargeable batteries adding a solar charger to the mix.ee Avenue on Apple Blossom Saturday and see a solid stream to taillights all the way to downtown. Police could make 800 arrests a weekend. Those were the glory days.

This year, The Ave downtown will be blocked on Friday so machinery and owners fresh from East Wenatchee’s Classy Chassis parade can gather and have fun. They call it Vettes and Rods on The Ave. No doubt there will be more reminiscing than actual cruising, but that’s fine. It’s billed as the first annual event. Maybe a new generation of cruisers will arise.

Saturday, a block of downtown will close for the Tour de Bloom bicycle criterium races, from 2 p.m. to 9 p.m., with plenty of exciting action and much to cheer. Nostalgia buffs can go to Music Theatre’s production of “Happy Days” at the Riverside Playhouse and say ’ay to The Fonz.

All this adds up to a plenty good Apple Blossom. If you take a notion to drink too much and drive slowly like the old days, chances are good there will still be an alert Wenatchee PD officer on hand to take notice. Meanwhile, if you need the chief, he’s cooking burgers.