Berthoud’s annual Labor Day tradition, Flapjack Day, welcomed special guests on Monday: four past Flapjack Queens who were crowned in the 1950s.
Flapjack Day is a Berthoud tradition that dates back over 75 years, since 1948, when Labor Day in town was marked by free pancakes up and down the street.
The event fizzled out in 1958 and largely faded from memory until a City Star Brewing employee inquired about a historic photo hanging near the bar. Flapjack Day was revived in 2015, before being largely set aside again during the COVID-19 pandemic. It finally returned in full force in 2022.
Flapjack Day returns to Berthoud
Since returning to town, the event has taken on a distinctive 1950s Americana flair, paying homage to its origins.
Virginia Buehler, Flapjack Day Queen of 1951, returned to Flapjack Day in Berthoud on Monday. (Will Costello / Loveland Reporter Herald).
But when women like Charlene Johnson Brehm (Flapjack Queen 1952) and Virginia Buehler (1951) were crowned, the ’50s rock ‘n’ roll was playing on radio stations, and the now-classic cars that line the streets outside City Star as part of Flapjack Day’s classic car show were fresh off the lot.
“The ’50s were very good years to be a teenager,” Brehm said. “It’s when parents told their children they had to be back at 10 o’clock, and they were. The boys liked their cars, liked to drive fast. They’d buzz down to Longmont on Main Street or go to Loveland and drive around the hamburger drive-ins.”
Brehm was 15 when she was crowned Flapjack Queen. In those days, the honor was awarded in a more traditional beauty contest, with a voting system in which attendees could drop a penny into a box to select the winner.
The tradition has changed some since: these days, Flapjack Queens are selected via a flapjack-eating contest.
Other things have changed as well, Buehler said.
“It was a lot quieter. There were not as many people,” she said, recalling the past events. “There used to be big granaries all along here. Those are all gone.”
Virginia Buehler, Flapjack Day Queen of 1951, returned to Flapjack Day in Berthoud on Monday. (Will Costello / Loveland Reporter Herald).
Many of the buildings that were landmarks in her childhood are long gone, she said. Other things, though, remain the same.
“It’s still Berthoud,” she said.
This has been one of the biggest Flapjack Days since the event was restarted in 2015, according to Diane Levy, a principal planner of Flapjack Day and member of the Berthoud Historical Society, which the local holiday benefits.
“I think we may have more people than I ever remember,” Levy, dressed as Rosie the Riveter, said, while serving pancakes on Monday morning. “Before 11 o’clock [when the event began], this line was completely around the corner.”
City Star, the Historical Society and a small army of volunteers serve 2,000 flapjacks each year, along with sausage, breakfast beer from the brewery and other breakfast staples. Levy said they expected to serve most, or all, of what they’d prepared.
Visitors waiting in line for pancakes had plenty to look at while they crept closer to their breakfast.
Charlene Johnson Brehm points to a new report from 1952 announcing contestants for Berthoud Flapjack Day Queen. She appears second from the left (Will Costello / Loveland Reporter Herald).
The classic car show stretched up Mountain Avenue in front of City Star, with cars ranging from Ford Thunderbirds from the 1950s to DeLoreans from the ’80s.
Brian Casey brought one of the former, a fully refurbished 1957 Thunderbird from his home in Wellington. The car had been his father’s, a “rustbucket” when he’d gotten it. His father later sold it to his brother, Casey’s uncle, who gave it a complete upgrade. When his uncle died last year, Casey’s aunt called him and offered to give him his father’s car back.
“My dad got to see it win an award at Good Guys [Car Show] before he died, and then when my uncle passed, they said, ‘You’ve got to have it.’ I didn’t expect a blessing like that. It’s a dream to drive.”
He got the car in February, so this is his first time bringing it to Flapjack Day.
“It’s a great event,” he said. “I mean, small-town vibe, you can’t beat that. Berthoud’s a great little town.”
Brian Casey, of Wellington, brought his fully refurbished 1957 Thunderbird to Berthoud’s Flapjack Day on Monday. (Will Costello / Loveland Reporter Herald).