Mountain Top Days: Celebrating ‘Our Town’

By Derek Johnson

Special to the Alpine Mountaineer 

Mountain Top Days – the annual summer festival in Running Springs – lived up to its theme, “Our Town.” It had every bit of small-town charm that one expects from this mountain community.

The festivities began on Friday night, Aug. 2, with a parade down Hilltop Boulevard. The parade was kicked off as always by Scott Richardson as Uncle Sam riding his penny farthing big wheel bicycle back and forth in front of the procession.

Uncle Sam was followed by the lead banner displaying the theme “Our Town,” trailed closely by the grand marshals, Dan and Carol Wagner, in a circa 1952 Plymouth Suburban.

Following the grand marshals were the line dancers from the Running Springs Golden Oaks Seniors. Onlookers clapped along as the seniors boogied to some rockabilly tunes.  As one can imagine, with line dancers setting the pace of the parade, the rest of the parade followed at a leisurely line dancing pace – advancing the length of a few steps at a time and halting when they moved laterally or backward. This gave the onlookers the opportunity to thoroughly examine the floats, classic cars and marchers in front of them, and the pace was perfect for the entrants to chat with their spectating friends and family along the route.

A wide variety of Running Springs businesses and organizations participated in the parade, and there was plenty of candy flying in the direction of the onlooking crowds.  Many kids went home with a Halloween-sized haul of goodies.

The following day – Saturday, Aug. 3 – was the expanded farmers market and artisan faire, which included the Running Springs Area Chamber’s annual backpack giveaway, where local kids are given a head start on the year with a free backpack packed with essential school supplies. Also part of the festivities was a variety of games and activities for kids and adults, including bicycle races, an egg toss, a watermelon eating contest and, of course, the always anticipated fire department bucket brigade competition.

In the bucket brigade race, each team needs to transfer the entirety of a 107-gallon tub to another empty tub a stone’s toss away. The transfer is accomplished by passing buckets back and forth down a line of firefighters, a nod to the heritage of firefighting in the days before mobile water tanks. A ping pong ball inside of an enclosed tube will float up and be ejected onto the ground when the tub is filled, and this is when time is marked.

This year, for the second year in a row, the bucket brigade race was a head-to-head competition between Arrowbear Fire and Running Springs Fire. Arrowbear Fire had to field a four-man team (instead of five) this year due to staffing issues, and Running Springs followed suit to keep the competition fair.

After a brief warmup and practice run, the competition was ready to begin. Following the age-old custom, the challengers, Arrowbear, went first. Arrowbear showed very few hiccups in their line – they looked like a well-oiled machine; spillage and stumblings were at a minimum, and they dropped the ping pong ball at a respectable 2:43, beating last year’s time by two seconds.

Next, Running Springs took position, and started their relay. Midway through the competition, a problem was discovered – Arrowbear’s truck, which was supplying the feed of water into the first tub, was now empty. As Running Springs Fire neared the end of the supply, their bucketfuls were getting noticeably smaller and, at the 2:38 mark (with the ping pong ball starting to peek out of the hole), they were unable to continue – the tub was dry.

After a brief deliberation, the hose was hooked up to Running Springs engine for a fresh water supply, and the race was reset. This time, Running Springs put on a magnificent performance, efficiently and smoothly filling the tub, dropping the ball at 2:31, beating Arrowbear by a full 12 seconds, and beating their own time from last year by six seconds.

The Running Springs team celebrated, rested and recovered in time to also win the egg toss competition about an hour later – notably, also for the second year in a row, this time against a wide range of civilians.  As one would expect, the spectators beamed with pride at the across-the-board athletic dominance by their beloved hometown department.

One may argue that the unexpected reset in the competition helped Running Springs make critical adjustments to their technique, improving their time. On the other hand, one may also argue that their second run was done under a heavier fog of fatigue, making their victory even more impressive. Whether or not there will be an asterisk next to their 2024 victory record is something for the national governing body of bucket brigade competitions to decide, assuming there is such an organization.

From the firehose water splashing on the steaming hot asphalt to watermelon eating contests in the blistering heat, the classic summertime activities of Running Springs Mountain Top Days are great memories to hold onto – especially useful to call upon in icy months, when these simple joys of summer can seem an eternity away.