OAKVILLE — They closed down U.S. Highway 12 for almost two hours Saturday afternoon while the town of Oakville held its annual Independence Day parade and 12th annual reenactment of Washington’s last horseback bank robbery.
It’s about as small-town America as you can get on the Fourth of July.
The American Legion band blows, drums and marches through the center of town, just behind the fire department and the color guard. Horses trail behind the music and the sirens, decked out in sparkling, splendid red, white and blue, riders carrying large flags.
Children line the streets with shopping bags in hand, waving and hopeful. “Throw some this way,” they yell. Then scramble to nab a piece of candy as it skitters across the pavement.
Glittering princesses on horseback, handsomely rugged cowboys, and old timers in old-time cars.
A pony cart with a sad-faced basset hound hitching a ride. Three (count ‘em), three wheelbarrow-pushing or four-wheeler and cart driving clean-up crews chasing the clip-clop of a hundred hooves.
Logging trucks, over-sized pick-up trucks, a Swede Queen in the back of a jeep, clowns and politicians.
It’s America, and it’s beautiful.
Oakville knows how to throw a parade and Oakville knows how to throw a bank robbery; they’ve been doing it for years.
But, in fact, the facts of the case — any facts other than the horse, the bank and the robbery — are scarce; they just make them up as they go along.
And since the who, what, when, and why are unknown and only the how known, the hold-up gangs are given a lot of leeway in the re-telling of this local legend.
But there is a tradition, and as tradition has it, after the Oakville Independence Day parade, the crowd forms a half-circle around the false-front Oakville State Bank. The one by one, hold-up gangs on horseback rob the bank. Over and over and over and over again, each gang competing for top honors — or at least a good laugh from the audience.
From high atop a ladder, microphone in hand, Randy Caverly of the Oakville Chamber of Commerce set the scene.
“Think back to a simpler, happier time, when Oakville had more residents than live here today. When every home, including the bank, still had an outhouse,” said Caverly.
As each gang sauntered up the street on horseback, Caverly gave a running commentary on the outlaws and their deeds.
The Black Hills Wranglers had an elaborate robbery plan cooked up. When asked how they got their start in a life of crime, Megan Delk, 16, Oakville, said, “As we were saddling up for an Oakville play day one day, I said, ‘Hey, wanna come rob a bank with me?’”
“Sure!” the rest of the gang chimed in, Tasha Ray, 17, and Kasi Froberg, 18, both from Rochester and Trisha Moore, 15, of Oakville.
The Black Hills Gold 4-H Club sprayed cans of silly string at the crowd as they strode into town. One mounted posse shot water pistols at the retreating gang. And another held up the bank with a stick.
The American Maid Mounted Drill Team won the crowds vote for best reenactment and the Happy Appy Gang took home the prize for Most Entertaining.
Oakville, the self-proclaimed “Friendliest One-Hundred and Four Year-Old Town in Washington” lived up to its name Saturday afternoon.
Though they did caution the crowds, saying that while this is the one day a year that a bank robbery makes for fine entertainment, “We ask that you remember not to joke about robbery when you do business with the great folks who run this branch of the Sterling Savings Bank during the year. We thank them for letting us rob them ... over and over and over and over again.”
