They say that "into every life a little rain must fall." And so it happened that the weather did not cooperate with the coordinators of this year's Napanoch Historical Day festivities.

The Saturday street festival began with a robust crowd already gathered at 10 a.m. A performance by the Ellenville school's drumline marked the official beginning of the day's events as it traveled down the hamlet's main streets and was greeted by a chorus of cheers.

Napanoch Public Interest Group (NPIG) President Steve Bradley started the day by welcoming all of the festival's visitors and noting, "I think there are already as many people here now as there was during all of last year's Napanoch Day." After he spoke, former town historian Marion Dumond provided some historical perspective to the day's proceedings.

For those that attended last year's inaugural Napanoch Historical Day, there were a number of differences between then and now. For starters, the number of vendors from last year's festival numbered around 4. This year, that number rose to 48. Along with them were last year's attractions: historical re-enactors, antique cars and historical tours of some of Napanoch's architectural treasures.

The mood on the streets was lively as "The Greyhounds" played music from the porch of the Shanley Hotel and Macaroni the clown interacted with passersby, dancing with children and adults.

Bradley and Napanoch Day coordinator Barbara Bleitzhofer were both beaming as they looked around and saw the results of several months of effort on behalf of the hamlet.

"We began planning right after last year's event. We started gathering vendors in January and we had about 15 or so and then the floodgates opened," he said, pointing at Bleitzhofer. "The board of directors could not have done this without Barbara. She has been great."

Bleitzhofer responded to the recognition saying, "I live for Napanoch."

And, in fact, it appears that Bleitzhofer and Bradley, along with the NPIG have big plans for the hamlet. Bradley said that once the restoration of the Shanley Hotel is complete, there are plans to have community events on a regular basis. Bleitzhofer mentioned the possibility of holding small concerts both in the hotel and on the hamlet's green, next to the senior center.

"It's great that Ellenville has all of its activities but we deserve some things for ourselves," Bleitzhofer said.

In addition to increasing the number of events every year, there is talk of expanding the size of Napanoch Day. The two spoke about getting more vendors next year and creating a shuttle service from the Napanoch Valley Mall parking lot, leaving more streets open for vendors. Bleitzhofer felt, after the dramatic jump in the number of vendors along with the large turnout by area residents, that, "There should be no problem getting vendors for next year."

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