Kids of all ages enjoy ice cream; Cool cones prove just right for

The line began near the first picnic table at the north entrance, making its way past the man in the hat selling $22 books and $18 DVDs, bending to the right at the spot where a four-person band played bluegrass music in the shadows of trees.

In all, the wait for a free cone of chocolate, vanilla or huckleberry ice cream took most people less than 15 minutes. There wasn't any cake, but it surely wasn't a bad way to spend a searing Saturday afternoon celebrating the 100th anniversary of Manito Park.

"Ice cream!" shouted 3-year-old Carter Childress, who sat at a booth in the pavilion with his family. Pink ice cream covered the boy's mouth and dripped onto his chest, which was without a shirt as he'd just finished a session in the nearby wading pool.

"It's interesting, the wide range of people out here. I thought it'd just be kids, but then there's older people and teens as well," said Carter's mother, Jennifer Childress, a South Hill resident and fourth-grade teacher at Greenacres Elementary.

Saturday was the day chosen to celebrate the 100th anniversary of Manito Park, which actually got its beginnings on May 19, 1904. Aside from the sweets - served up by Mary Lou's Homemade Ice Cream - the celebration put on display art and antique cars.

"It brings the city together, not that I'm socializing with anyone right now," said George Timm, who came to the park with his family for the ice cream.

Counting cones, almost 2,000 people attended the event from 1 p.m. to 4 p.m. Families found refuge from the heat in the well-kept grass that, in places, harbored sought-after shade.

Phyllis Northrop, 84, a South Hill resident of 54 years who has spent a great deal of her time at the park, said she came to offer "moral support." Northrop volunteers with The Associated Garden Clubs of Spokane, an association she said has donated $125,000 to the park in the past 20 years.

"People say, 'Where were you born?' " I say, 'Manito Park because I spend so many hours there.' "

Away from the ice cream, two dozen antique cars parked along a street. Many were old, but only one carried a special distinction. Built in 1900, the Locomobile Steam Car, owned by Spokane Valley resident Jim McCall, is older than the park itself.

"You can't hook a horse up to it, but here's where the reins go," McCall told a small group of people gathered around the red-and- black buggy.

McCall can't be sure, but he said he thinks his antique is the oldest in Spokane.

"That's one of the reasons I wanted to bring it," he said. "They're from the same time frame, the car and the park."

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