Jul 30, 2005 By Josh Krysak 5 min read

WAYNESBURG – Sitting on the sidewalk, the summer sun glinting off her sunglasses, Tanya Bissett of Mather munches on a shrimp kabob and a basket of cheese fries, her daughter and two children she watches daily, taking in the bustling action along Main Street. “I have been coming for 26 years and it is always a great event,” Bissett said of the 130th annual Rain Day Festival. “It is something for the kids to do and have fun.”

Fun is always an ingredient in Rain Day, the annual event in Waynesburg celebrating what is traditionally a rainy day in southwestern Pennsylvania.

Friday, despite bright sunshine, the crowds still came out to celebrate their community and hope for at least a sprinkle.

“There are some clouds in the sky,” Rain Day organizer John Owen said hopefully looking at the sky. “We never give up until midnight each year. There is always a chance.”

Owen said the event organizers tried to mix the events up this year, starting the daily acts and shows with the Vogues – a fan favorite – Owen said the lunchtime crowd was a little larger this year as people packed around the stage on the courthouse steps to listen.

Happy festival-goers feasting on everything from pulled pork sandwiches and pepper steaks to non-alcoholic daiquiris and margaritas poured over the tents spaced along Main Street, buying trinkets, playing games and just taking in the town fair.

“This is a community event and an important event,” Owen said of the annual festival. “It’s not just for kids. There is something here for everybody.”

And this year the event was commemorated with the unveiling of a new monument to the county’s favorite day, a tribute that came about most unexpectedly.

Last November, Waynesburg businessman Glenn Toothman, famous for inventing the Memory Medallion – a tiny disc installed on grave markers to provide history to visitors – was in San Francisco on a business trip, when he bumped into something unexpected.

“My conference center was across the city from my hotel and I had to walk to and from it each day,” Toothman said. “I walked through Chinatown in the evening and I got pushed into a statue outside of one of the shops.”

Toothman said he stopped to see what he had bumped into and looked at a statue of a boy, with a girl riding piggyback on his shoulders, underneath an umbrella. A fountain ran out of the tip of the umbrella, making a stream of water trickle down over the rain cover.

“I told the shop owner, “I know a place that needs this,” Toothman said.

After working with the owner on the price of the statue, Toothman bought the five-foot sculpture and brought it back to Waynesburg where it was unveiled Friday beside the county office building, in a small garden.

“For me, it was special to get to do,” Toothman said. “I was raised in this town and now I am raising my kids in this town. It is a nice tradition.”

And Owen said the statue could not have a more appropriate name: “Fun on Rain Day.”

“It is perfect,” Owen said.

Peter and Judy Rumskey of Waynesburg stood admiring the new statue and said they have come to the event ever since they moved to Waynesburg 25 years ago and both said it is something that makes the community stand out from its counterparts.

“It is just great to get out to see everybody,” Peter said, as he and Judy watched a butterfly light on a flower beside the new statue. “This is a very close knit community and it is a good event.”

According to Owen, Rain Day began 130 years ago on July 29 when, directly across from the courthouse in the now Design and Copy building, a farmer stopped into the then pharmacy and told the druggist that it would rain.

He allegedly told the pharmacist he kept a weather calendar and every year, without fail, it rained on his birthday, July 29, Owen said. The druggist began each year betting customers their hat that it would rain on the date and the now countywide event grew from there.

Owen said in 1979 the county appointed the Special Events Commission to formally organize Rain Day and the annual festivities continue to grow every year.

And, following tradition, the town bet their “hat” against a famous celebrity, this year challenging business mogul and “Apprentice” star Donald Trump that it would rain Friday.

Weather predictions for the town called for sunny skies and a high temperature in the mid 80s with only a 20 percent chance of rain.

But it appeared as the sun beat down on the festival late Friday afternoon that the town would owe “The Donald” a hat come Saturday.

Last year the town bet actor/comedian Will Ferrell his hat that it would rain in the town, with Ferrell following in the tradition that has had such notables as Bing Crosby, Bob Hope and Mohammed Ali.