This weekend is the annual Pella Tulip Time festival in our hometown of Pella, IA. Each year the community celebrates its Dutch heritage with parades, tours, and plenty of food and dutch treats. And of course, there are tulips, tulips and more tulips. The Tulip Time celebration started back in the 1935.
My grandfather, Herman Vander Well, was raised in northwest Iowa (Boyden/Hull/Rock Valley) and attended Central College in Pella between 1927 and 1929. Several years ago I came into the possession of his college photo album from those years. The black and white pictures were taken with his Kodak Brownie box camera. The album was donated by my family to the archives of Central College some years ago, but I retain the scanned images.
In the photo album there are several pictures of the “Advance” parade/festival that he and fellow Central students participated in on the town square. It was obviously a precursor to Tulip Time. So, for friends in Pella who are celebrating Tulip Time this weekend – here’s a Throwback Thursday to before there was Tulip Time.
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