Despite Poor Crop, Cherry Festival Is a Big Draw : Leona Valley: Frost has made ’95 harvest almost fruitless. But nearly all of the town’s 2,000 residents flock to annual parade.

The Perkins family rose early, packed up their ’54 International pickup, and drove here all the way from Bakersfield on Saturday to enjoy their hometown’s annual Cherry Festival and Parade and enter its Ugly Truck Contest.

Piled in the back of their rusty truck were broken-down machines and parts, wire and hoses to suggest “a trip home from the dump,” according to a cardboard sign taped to the driver-side door.

“It’s my dad’s old truck,” said Jack Perkins, 36. “I learned to drive on that thing.”

His daughter, 10-year-old Adriel, added: “And it’s gonna be mine, hopefully.”

The Perkinses’ pickup was surpassed in its ugliness only by a Chevy owned by Tom and Judy Brundage. The Brundages’ battered truck, with a broken window and missing seat, won first place in the contest that drew only two entries.

But such is life in the Leona Valley, where the population doesn’t exceed 2,000 and there’s only one major intersection in town. And folks here say that’s how they like it.

“We’ve come to see the neighbors,” said Mike McKnight, who brings his four children to the festival every year. “The kids like it when they throw candy off the floats.”

Virtually the entire town showed up for the festival and parade, despite a dismal cherry crop this year caused by severe frost.

“We came today for cherry picking,” said Mary Ann Jackman, with an ironic smirk, who brought her two boys from Lancaster in the family van. “But the kids are still out in the sun and having a lot of fun.”

Holding up a basket, Melissa Smith, 10, showed off eight red cherries that had been picked at the family ranch. Her father, Buzz Smith, said, “This is our entire cherry harvest.”

The Smiths, a happy family of eight plus grandpa, showed up at the festival in a golf cart they bought at a yard sale to be entered in the parade.

“Out here in the country, there’s more space for the children,” said Buzz Smith, a firefighter for the city of Los Angeles who says his 90-minute commute is worth it.

But those days of innocence may soon be a thing of the past. Last November, plans for a massive housing development that would attract more than 20,000 people to Leona Valley were finally approved after five years of fierce battles.

Residents are uneasy about the project that has just begun construction and avoid mentioning it “unless you’re wearing a flak jacket,” as one parade-goer put it.

But on Saturday, good will and family fun prevailed as hundreds of valley residents lined the parade route with trucks and lawn chairs. Grand marshal was Joel Margaretten, 84, a retired dentist and now a lilac grower.

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“I’m probably the oldest inhabitant of Leona Valley,” Margaretten said. Smoking his trademark pipe, Margaretten said he has lived in Leona Valley since 1947 and has developed a lilac hybrid that he has named after the town.

Margaretten smiled and waved as he was driven down 90th Street West in a yellow Ford Fairlane. Behind him were the usual parade suspects: Shriners speeding around in their go-carts, classic cars whose drivers threw candy to the children, and beauty queens whose tiaras sparkled in the midmorning sun.

Wearing a purple velvet and satin dress, and a big smile complete with braces, Stephanie Covert, 17--first princess for Miss Hughes Elizabeth Lakes--waved with majestic grace from atop a utility truck.

Around her zoomed 14-year-old Aaron DeMucha and a bunch of his friends who turned up in off-road motorcycles. The festival is the only day youngsters are allowed to ride off-road vehicles on town streets, and Aaron clearly approved of the idea.

“It’s pretty cool,” he said.