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| Riverboat Days crowd in the 1960s |
Riverboat Days was one of those things you
didn’t really think about… until it was gone.
If you lived anywhere near Clinton, you just knew.
Late June, sliding into the Fourth, you were going down to the river. Didn’t
matter if you planned it. You ended up there anyway.
It started in 1961. Didn’t look like much at
first. Small-town festival stuff. A queen, a parade, some events, people
figuring it out as they went.
In 1963, Gertrude—(maybe Georgene. The papers weren't sure.) Krogman—got crowned
queen. A few years later, in 1966, Gertrude Lego took her turn. Same names
popping up, same families, same faces. It still felt local.
But even then, they were swinging bigger than they
probably should’ve.
