Connie Eliand, then Connie Wolf,
reigns as
"Miss Alpine" in 1965
1st Alpenfest
Queen
remembers
1st pageant
© 2007 AlpenTimes
By Julie Kettlewell
Ask someone to remember what they were doing 42 years ago this week, and they might be stumped for a minute. But that was the question posed to Connie (Wolf) Eiland, first queen of the Alpine Village, and she had to admit, it was a stretch to come up with details of the 1965 Alpine Festival and the royal competition.
"It's a little confusing 40-some years later," Connie remarked. "It's tricky to go that far back." But she did recall one thing with perfect clarity:
"I remember running from work," she said with a light chuckle. "I was running down the street to make it to my car before the parade." It was a challenge, she recalled, holding down a job as a waitress, attending required interviews and events and, as a 1965 graduate of Gaylord High School, preparing to go off to college.
In that vein, the role of a queen's candidate has not changed all that much over the years, though the festival and the queen's pageant have both gone through many transformations. The young ladies competing for queen have a heavy load, and Connie recalls that being true even in 1965 with the birth of the Alpine Festival, now known as Alpenfest.
The first pageant, however, was much different than what people see today, said Connie. "I believe there were three judges and we all talked with the judges, ate a meal with them and they chose girls from that interview to go on to another interview, she said, were the sole basis for the selection of a winner. "We may have walked in our Alpine costumes, but we didn't do bathing suits or talent or evening gowns."
After that first year, those other components were added to the competition, and today the candidates must still go through an interview process, present talent, and walk in their evening gowns, said Meaghan Aimoe, pageant director. Years ago, however, the bathing suit portion of the program was eliminated. That would never fly today," said Aimoe.
An like the first pageant, she noted, the judging is very heavy on the interviewing, with three impartial, non-resident judges determining winners in each category and making the selection of queen and runners up. "They ask the girls about their knowledge of Alpenfest, its history, their favorite memories of the festival," explained the director. "What they are looking for is a spokesperson, someone who can represent Alpenfest and who really loves it."
Connie (Wolf) Eiland
1st Alpenfest Queen
(then called Miss Alpine)
1965
And this is where Connie Wolf Eiland - today a busy wife, mother, grandmother, and physical therapist - laid the groundwork for all of the young ladies who followed in her footsteps. As the first royal representative of the Alpine Village, she was charged with the responsibility of letting the masses know about our town, our people and our annual festival. She had no favorite memories of the festival and no knowledge of its history, because there we none. She was starting from scratch.
"That part was really fun, being part of getting the word out about the festival," Connie remembered fondly. "I was in a lot of parades." Like the queens who came after her, she traveled around Northern Michigan, attending other festivals, riding on floats, and putting her best foot forward for Gaylord and Otsego County.
Connie has seen the pageant evolve over the years, and when looking back to 1965, expresses her sentiments about the festival and her place as queen:
"We didn't have glittery crowns. We had plastic flowers. Mine were pink, I remember that . . . It was just fun," she said. "I don't think we had any kind of prizes, There were no checks involved or scholarships." The rewarded for our first Alpine Queen was the privilege of assuming her station as an active ambassador for her community. And that, she remarked, should always be the focus for any young woman vying for the crown.
"They are representatives, not just the winner of a contest," said Connie, recalling with pride the day she was crowned by Michigan's Governor George Romney. "They are representing the city of Gaylord, and their actions and thoughts and what they say all reflect on Gaylord," she said of the queen's role.
The more things change, the more they do stay the same. In this case, the distinctive honor and demanding role of Alpenfest Queen.
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