TimesArgus.com - We Are Vermont

Mayor takes a dive, breaks ribs

Heritage Festival jousting match turns painful for Lauzon

BARRE TOWN – If Mayor Thomas Lauzon had only trusted his gut Sunday, he wouldn't have broken his ribs.

Who knew pedestal jousting could be so dangerous?

Certainly not Lauzon who gamely agreed to participate in a 21st century re-enactment of the fabled fist fight over the naming of Barre during Sunday's conclusion of the Barre Heritage Festival at Barre Town Middle and Elementary School.

Moments after dropping $20 on 60 chances to dunk assessor Joe Levesque – he did so twice in roughly 20 attempts before letting his wife, Karen, take over – Lauzon wandered over to the inflated ring where he and Jeff Blow, chairman of Barre Town's selectboard, agreed to square off at noon.

Blow, who enjoyed home-field advantage, was clearly the fan favorite as he and Lauzon stripped off their sneakers and socks, strapped on helmets, picked up padded jousting sticks and prepared to do battle.

"We're for Jeff (Blow)," town resident Roger Cyr said.

"Go Jeff!" Cyr's wife, Betty heartily agreed, as the two grown men stood teetering on two padded pedestals in the middle of the nearby ring.

Cyr may have sealed Lauzon's fate by asking in advance whether it was a one-fall-winner-take-all event, or "best two out of three."

Lauzon and Blow hastily agreed to the latter, with Blow toppling Lauzon in less than 15 seconds and the mayor returning the favor with a below-the-belt thrust that would have drawn a flag if Dotty Berby had she been officiating.

More on Berby later.

With the score tied, 1-1, and both men bloodied, but unbowed, Lauzon offered an olive branch.

"We could just call it a draw," he wheezed, adding: "It's tough to be old isn't it?"

However, Blow didn't take the draw and Lauzon – ribs still intact – didn't press the point before the brief, but decisive match was under way.

It really didn't last long.

Sensing the match slipping away, Lauzon lunged toward Blow, hoping to topple his adversary, but whiffing instead and breaking his ribs when he slammed into Blow's pedestal.

Lauzon didn't let on at the time.

"I got beat fair and square," he said, shaking hands with Blow who joked: "I'll be down for a proclamation to rename the city next week."

That's when Blow left to keep a date at the go-cart track in Graniteville and Lauzon quietly headed to the hospital.

"It was a last ditch effort," Lauzon would later explain of the unfortunate lunge that cost him a trip to the emergency room.

Blow learned of Lauzon's misfortune after following up his jousting victory by tallying his first feature win of the go-cart racing season.

"I should go buy a lottery ticket," he said, explaining he wondered what was up when Lauzon didn't meet him at the Ricky Ridge race track as planned after the joust.

Blow and Lauzon might both have benefited from a jousting lesson from Berby, who supervised a jousting match between her two grandchildren before taking out her daughter and her daughter's daughter.

"Below the shoulders and not in the privates," Berby told her granddaughter, Mycheala Crossett, 8, as she prepared to joust with her kid brother Devon, 5.

Lauzon's ribs weren't the only things that broke during an otherwise fun-filled day at Barre Town's recreation field. At least two skateboards snapped in half during the annual Travis Mercy Memorial Skate Tournament.

Mike Murphy, 22, of Johnson competed on a borrowed board as did his friend Richard Bowen, 23, of Johnson. After snapping the deck of his skateboard while performing a "frontside boardside" during warm ups, Murphy had to transfer the trucks to a spare deck he borrowed from a fellow competitor. Murphy finished third in the over-13 class to Bowen, who was the runner up, and Geoffrey Hall, 18, of Warren, who won the competition.

Although Lauzon left with broken bones, one of the younger skateboarders – Hogan Ostrout – arrived with one.

Ostrout, 13, who broke his arm while riding his bike earlier this month, managed a second-place finish in the 13-and-under category, edging out his kid brother, Sawyer, 11, who finished third. Jonathan defended his title by posting back-to-back first place finishes in the skateboard competition this year.

While folks were jousting to the right of him and skateboarding to the left of him, Levesque, who serves as assessor in both the city and the town, spent an hour in the dunking booth.

Levesque managed to stay dry for the first 20 minutes until a frustrated Logan Violette, 14, ran up and sent him plunging into the water.

"I had to do it," Violette said.

Bryce Rancourt didn't.

Rancourt, 9, dunked Levesque with his first pitch and repeated the feat two throws later.

"Next time it's five bucks for you," Levesque told Rancourt, who spent most of the day giving away stuffed animals he rounded up with the help of his sister, Olivia, and her friend Lauren Clark, both 11 to children who played the carnival games they came up with.

Before his jousting match with Blow, Lauzon said the revival of the festival was a big hit in Barre on Saturday and was enthusiastic about the family friendly events and live entertainment in Barre Town Sunday.

"I think it has been a tremendous success," he said, of a festival that got a huge break from Mother Nature.

"It's like summer finally arrived," he said. "What more can you ask for?"

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