The Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection Part 3 - Roy L. Hart

The Romeo Peach Festival is one month away, and the Romeo Community Archives will be there this year to conduct oral histories about the cherished event.

All interviews will be apart of the digital Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection. Each will contain the audio and transcript.

Each participant will also be given a sticker for sharing their memories of the festival. Roy L. Hart, the man seen above, wore said sticker after we interviewed him at last year's Romeo Peach Festival.

We recently added Roy's interview to the digital collection. He has gone to the Peach Festival many times over the years. In our conversation, he shared plenty of fond memories of being at the event.

Growing up, Roy recalled that his parents parked cars and motorcycles for anyone attending. They would keep an eye on the stuff that was left in the vehicles. Even his grandma got involved so much that she used to say, "I used to put parking, parking, parking" in the middle of the night.

Roy also remembered the rides and games at the carnival. He claimed that he went on so many of the former that he usually got sick. As for the games, he played a lot of them like the dart and crane ones. Roy recalled that his brother Howard was so good at basketball that he was able to obtain lots of stuffed animals just by playing it. And, Howard brought home garbage bags full of said stuffed animals to their mom and aunt.

Moreover, Roy revealed a bit of the Peach Festival's filthy side. About 25-30 years ago, at the festivities, there was an issue of people coming out of bars and going to the bathroom on people's yards. They would even do their business that while residents were sitting outside. This caused concern in Romeo, so the Romeo Lions Club put a fence up around the festival grounds.

I couldn't find any documentation of this problem at the Romeo Peach Festival in either The Romeo Observer nor the Romeo Lions Club Collection. One could assume that it was a rather small issue or one that they would rather not discuss. It seems like it was completely resolved after the club constructed that fence.

Roy and I had a great time talking about the Romeo Peach Festival. The Romeo Community Archives looks forward to talking to more people about their memories of the Peach Festival and what it means to them at this year's festivities.

It doesn't matter if you're young or old. We want to hear all of the stories about the festival.

To check out the Roy L. Hart interview, you can go the Romeo Community Archives online catalog. More will be uploaded in the near future.

If you want to participate in the Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890. We can also conduct interivews outside of Romeo Peach Festival weekend if you feel more comfortable that way.

Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Romeo Peach Festival Oral History Collection, 2024

RCA Photo of the Week - July 24, 2025

Did you know that there was a Kroger grocery store right in downtown Romeo? A location was established in June 1942 on the west side of South Main Street. In 1950, the workers at that store planned a big anniversary party for one weekend to celebrate eight years of serving the Romeo public.

How did they do that? They made a giant birthday cake to cut up into pieces and give them to customers on the Friday and Saturday of the July 21st weekend. According to the July 27, 1950 issue of The Romeo Observer Press, the cake seen above "weighed nearly 400 pounds and was made up of 200 baked slabs one inch thick and measuring 12 inches by 18 inches."

Three bakers in the Kroger bakery in Detroit assembled and decorated the dessert from 9am to 5:30pm the Wednesday prior.

It was claimed that the cake was the largest in Romeo's history at that time. Now, I don't know if there have been cakes made in the last 75 years that were bigger, but judging by the picture, it would have been a tough act to follow.

Romeo Kroger manager Don Rasmussen and his wife Frances are seen in the photo cutting up the cake. They were able to divide it into 3,200 slices by 2pm on that Saturday. I would have loved to have seen the cake in person. It looks beautifully decorated.

Now getting a piece of cake while you shop for groceries sounds awesome, but that Kroger store did more to celebrate. In the cake itself, there were 79 capsules. Everyone who received a said capsule in their slice "exchanged it for a meat, produce or vegetable grocery prize."

In addition to the cake pieces and the capsules, that Kroger store gave away 2,300 balloons, 1,000 12-inch rulers, 1,000 measuring spoons, and 500 drinking glasses. Now, that's what I call customer service!

If the current Kroger store by 30 Mile and Van Dyke Roads did something like that today, it would be a piece of cake.

To learn more about that Kroger store, you can contact the Romeo Community Archives at rca@romemodistrictlibrary.org or call (586) 690-4890.

Images and sources courtesy of the Romeo Community Archives; Melvin E. and Joan D. Bleich Collection, The Romeo Observer Press, July 20, 1950, p.1 and July 27, 1950, p.8