by John Dowd
For those that have been attending the Stevensville Creamery Picnic in recent years, it would be hard to imagine the picnic’s star parade without its two star announcers. Bill McNulty and Jim Pfau have been announcing events in the valley for a long time, and have been a part of the Creamery Picnic Parade for over 30 years. However, an era is coming to an end as the two men collectively announced that this was their last year narrating the parade.
The two are well known in the valley and they also announce for the Creamery Picnic Pig Races, and do a number of auctions. Both men said they have started to pare down on the jobs they take on. A big one of those is the Creamery Picnic Parade.
Bill McNulty and Jim Pfau outside the Bitterroot Star office. The duo have been announcing events around Stevensville for over three decades. This year was their last time announcing for the Creamery Picnic Parade. Photo by John Dowd.
“It really involved a lot more than you think,” said McNulty.
They have been the default announcers for the parade for a long time, but it always takes some preparation and coordination to announce for these big events, especially one like the parade. For them, that is really the big reason.
“It’s just time for somebody else to take over,” said Pfau.
They hope to be able to spend more time traveling and with families and grandkids. The commitment, and needing to be around the area for these events, takes away from spending their remaining years with family.
McNulty said another reason is that some of it comes down to the community as a whole. “We knew everybody,” said McNulty. “Now, I don’t know anybody.”
They feel their time has run its course, and there is a different generation coming in. McNulty and Pfau believe it is this new generation’s time to do things. “The town has changed so much,” added Pfau.
Having let the Stevensville Civic Club know, Pfau said, “They’ll have a year to figure it out,” and find new announcers. However, Pfau and McNulty are not worried. “There’s some characters. They’ll find somebody,” said McNulty.
“We’re not irreplaceable,” said Pfau.
According to the men, the parade will need someone with a big loud voice, a little bit of personality and who’s “not afraid to pick on anyone,” they both said.
They looked back on their time announcing for the parade and the picnic and recalled some highlights. They talked about the calf dressing event and how that raised a lot of money. They were happy to see the greased pig event come back and enjoy that event a lot. They also said how “things have come back to what it was,” said McNulty. The men said the picnic used to be all downtown, then it moved to the park. Here recently they are happy to see more stuff happening in the downtown, and would love to see more of the event move back to the downtown. For them, it seems a great way to help the local businesses. McNulty added that there was just something special about looking across the street and seeing everyone going into shops and out to games and activities in the street.
They cannot remember a year when the parade was rained out. One year a few people got heat stroke and COVID-19 was a “weird one,” with not being able to see anyone’s faces through masks. They also said the event has grown a lot over the years, with many more entries into the parade. They also noted fewer horses than before.
The pair are also well known for their announcing of auctions, like the pie auction for the Stevensville Main Street Association. They are particularly known for helping to raise thousands for numerous nonprofits and causes in the valley, over the years. Because of this, they feel they should keep announcing for some of those. “We know the people and we know how to get the money out of them,” said McNulty with a smile.
For almost 35 years, the parade always had one or both of them, every single year. In all their years, they each only missed one parade, and each on separate years.
Looking ahead, McNulty said, “It isn’t emotional, but it is a step. I enjoyed it.”
“I did too,” said Pfau.