As much as any town could be – and perhaps more than most – Norco is a community, in every sense of the word.
And it’s about to celebrate quite the significant milestone. The Norco 100-year anniversary celebration is set for Saturday, Oct. 4 at Norco’s Town Square (18 Apple Street) from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m.
The Side B Band will provide musical entertainment and there will be attractions for all ages, including free food and drinks, pony rides, sno-balls, games for children, vendors and more.
“It’s basically going to be a block party,” said Norco Civic Association President Stephen Weber. “We have over 30 plus vendors and we’re going to have free food – it’s free until we’re out – free food, free drinks, free sno-balls, free pony rides, something for everyone … it’s a celebration for Norco and we’re hoping a lot of people who not only live here now but also people who used to live here come back and just spend some time celebrating our birthday.”
Weber said that each vendor has been asked to have an interactive element at their booth – things like coloring pads, tic-tac-toe or wheel spins for children.
A special T-shirt – currently in the designing process – will be sold to commemorate 100 years of Norco. The Destrehan High School video production team is also working with event planners to put together a video highlighting the town for the event.
Under the celebration’s main tent there will be memorabilia on display – Weber added that the NCA is asking for submissions of photos of Norco through the years for that purpose.
And as noted, there should be a little bit of everything, from demonstrations of how to use a fire extinguisher in case of a fire, to a fire truck for kids to tour and to service vendors like travel agents who can help you plan your next trip.
“We’ve been working on it for a long time,” Weber said. “If we get good weather, I think we’ll have a lot of people there.”
The people of Norco take pride in their tight-knit community and there are a lot of memories from the past 100 years.
“I remember Norco from the 60s when I grew up,” said Weber. “It’s always been a very homey feeling and everybody knows each other.”
He recalled a bit of football rivalry fallout from the time.
“LSU and Tulane were big rivals, and we had a milk man in Norco and he was a Tulane fan. And LSU was beating them so many years, so when Tulane finally won, he actually dyed the milk green and delivered a green mi
lk to all the LSU fans,” Weber said. “Everyone really did know each other.”
And to this day, they very much care about one another as well, from one generation to the next.
“We have a lot of young families growing up in Norco,” Weber said. “Including (Weber’s son Renny), who lives here in Norco and works for Shell … we all do what we can to keep on with that same small town feeling.”
Weber said the businesses of the community have been extremely supportive of the event and that many of them will have booths. He also gave a big nod to Shell for what he called year-round support of the community.
He strongly advised attendees bring their own chairs to get off their feet and listen to the music.
“And I think people are going to really enjoy it,” Weber said of The Side B Band. “I was really impressed by the list of songs they play … Motown, country, 70s pop, 80s pop, it was over 100 songs. I think everyone’s going to be pleased with them and really entertained.”
