Residents and visitors will gather Sept. 26 to celebrate the community’s history during Reminisce Day.
The Dearborn Community Betterment Association created the event in 2018 to bring together current and former residents of Dearborn and surrounding communities. A parade honoring local historian Lu Durham highlighted the inaugural celebration on Sept. 22, 2018, which also featured garage sales, vendors and other activities.
Since then, residents, businesses and community figures from Dearborn, Edgerton and Camden Point have been recognized each year. Some have been honored with a parade, while the North Platte Historical Museum has preserved their stories through recorded interviews.
Those interviews have captured memories that otherwise might have been lost, including accounts of an early Elvis Presley performance in a store parking lot, a Weston man recruiting high school seniors for pilot training after the attack on Pearl Harbor and a local doctor’s connection to Blanche Barrow of the Barrow gang.
Honorees have also shared memories of growing up in the area during the 1940s and ’50s.
Past honorees include Lu Durham in 2018; Cassity Bus Co. in 2019; Nash Gas Co. in 2020; Louis Buntin in 2021; Shirley Hill, J.C. Roberts and Harold Searcy in 2022; Daryl Shafer, Larry Park, and Nina Sue and Lloyd Sellars in 2023; school secretaries Arlys Kampmeyer, Marjorie Stubbs and Tammy Manville in 2024; and Betty Stancil in 2025.
This year’s honorees are Harold Smith and Dan Burns. Museum staff will interview Smith at 11 a.m. and Burns at 1 p.m. Friends and relatives are invited to attend the interviews at the museum. A public address system will allow audience members to hear their stories.
Visitors may also view scrapbooks featuring previous honorees.
Reminisce Day will begin with a pancake breakfast served by members of the North Platte football team as a fundraiser. This will be the fifth year the team has served the breakfast.
The annual car show will fill the Central Bank parking lot with classic vehicles, while more than 20 vendors will set up a block away. Offerings will include sourdough bread, crafts, baked goods, dirty sodas and other items.
Dearborn’s citywide garage sales, a fall tradition that predates Reminisce Day, will also return. Maps showing participating sales will be available.
Main Street Grill and Bar will celebrate its first anniversary with specials. The business will continue its outdoor summer movie series with a showing of “Secondhand Lions” at 8 p.m.
Main Street Grill and Bar, Central Bank, the North Platte Historical Museum and other community organizations are working to fulfill the Dearborn Community Betterment Association’s vision of bringing family and friends together for a day of visiting, storytelling and fun.
