ANDOVER — “Too hot for a hug?” “Nope, not all” was the question and response heard at Andover Olde Home Days. The 90-degree day featured a parade, vendors, corn hole, tractor pulls, an art show, cookie walk, lawn tractor races, and more.

Avery Wight, 4, of Turner, left, and her cousin, Grace Farrington, 3, of Bethel, grandchildren of Mark Farrington of Andover, play in his 1965 Volkswagen Beetle before the start of the Andover Olde Home Days parade. Rose Lincoln

“Families come home for Old Home Days,” said Judy Michaud, in charge of vendors and as part of the Andover Service Circle was there when her group began the event 42 years ago. Asked if her family was here today, she said “nope, they’re off camping.” Even without Michaud’s family, the event was more popular than ever, with each vendor space filled for the first time and director, Joe Luce estimating 5,000 participants. “It’s a really, good turnout, as usual. It gets better every year.”

As Luce spoke from the gazebo on the town common, a circle of people in lawn chairs slowly but steadily formed below. “They are arriving for the button raffle” explained Luce. The pin-back buttons (with “Olde Home Days 2022” on the front and a number on the back) cost a dollar each and could be purchased at Mills Market and elsewhere around town in the weeks before the event. If your number got called from the gazebo you could win a prize ranging from a quilt (donated annually by Merry Damone) to a carved wooden bear, two Adirondack chairs, to any number of gift cards donated by local businesses.  “See this guy with the ponytail and camo hat” said Luce, pointing down from the gazebo, “he’s a truck driver from Massachusetts who comes up every year for the raffle. John McDermott confirmed that he’d bought 343 buttons this time. “It’s my gambling budget for the whole year,” he said.

Long before button numbers were called, people, vehicles, and horses lined up for the parade at White’s Field on Main Street. Eight Army trucks waited across the street at Larry Costa’s. Floyd Emerson of Andover said his daughter drives one of the two tractors he displays in the parade. She was having a yard sale, so he asked daughter-in-law, Erica Emerson to do the honors. “I have a new driver” he told his daughter, “You better not be keeping her” came her quick response. As the parade was underway the elder Emerson came along first, passing Andover Fire Station, riding confidently on his high tractor. Pitter pattering a couple hundred yards behind him was newcomer Erica, who had earlier said, “I just hope I don’t hit anyone.” No chance at the rate she was going.

Behind the fire station, volunteer firefighter, Earnest Peare, of Rumford Corner, was cooking “the best yard birds in town” as he has done, for the past 35 years.  Hundreds of chicken wings were pressed into metal racks and lay over a wood burning fire. Diners would soon come to sit at long tables inside the firehouse eating the $20. chicken dinner. Asked about ‘the secret sauce’ he was squeezing from apple juice bottles onto the birds, Peare said he couldn’t divulge the ingredients. He turned from the hot fire to drink a can of beer. “I have my marinade, too” he said.

Behind Town Hall on a slice of field beside the Corn Hole tournament, a group of mostly women stood under a tent in the shade as the Skillet Toss started. When it was Whitney McPherson of Andover’s turn, everyone applauded as she threw it over 58 feet. “I’m just a farm girl,” she said, then cheered as her several competitors tried their hand. Two people laid a tape measure down for each throw and a third, recorded each woman’s best time of two tries. A man watching from behind the tent, yelled to a participant, “Look in the pan, you’ll see my face and really throw it.” After a lob that went up instead of out, someone asked, “Are there points for vertical?” A thrower, new to the competition, asked how it was done. The response: “you just chuck it!”

After many months of planning and the sale of 3000 buttons (up from last year’s 2000), Luce seemed happy. “I’ll be in my lounge chair relaxing by 2:30 today” he said. On the phone the next day, Luce said it didn’t happen the way he’d hoped. At 2:30 he had to do tech inspections at the lawnmower race. Afterward he fell asleep briefly in his lounge chair, then headed back to clean up trash and pick up the corn hole. “I was done at 5:30” he said, “but today I’m relaxing all day.”