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There was good weather, good food and generations of Good family members celebrated at the 117th annual Skagit County Pioneer Association Picnic and General Meeting in La Conner’s Pioneer Park Thursday (Aug. 5). The descendants of the 19th century pioneering Edward Early Good and Thomas Good families, who settled and farmed on Firm Island in the 1870s, were joined by other pioneer family successors and scores of newer immigrants to Skagit County. They came together, primarily unmasked, in a tradition that was only broken in 2020 by the coronavirus pandemic.

The families, neighbors, friends and county residents once again settled in the park’s amphitheatre after a salmon BBQ lunch served by the members of the La Conner Civic Garden Club. Purchasers of the $20 meal were handed tickets by club member Joyce Johnson, at 103 the oldest club member. Singing, a meeting tradition, started the program and patriotic songs were interspersed during it, with Faye Whitney leading the group first in “You’re a Grand Old Flag.”

The heart of the program was recognizing and honoring the Good family. Lonnie Good minister of a Wenatchee church, first gave the invocation, ending with “There are many people in the family who do what is right and honorable and good.”

Many Goods from the branches of the family came to the microphone to share memories and recognize their family members, starting with matriarch Lou Lovelace, at 92 the eldest family member. After introducing her, a flurry of hands went up when all Goods in the audience were asked “to raise your hands so we can see who is here.”

Later, Virginia Good-Vlahovich came to the podium to get the association’s plaque recognizing her family from its president, John Kamb Jr. She immediately brought the plaque to her “Auntie Lou” sitting out in the audience.

Over 100 people stayed for the program and many more had lunch earlier in the picnic shelter and at tables scattered around the park. As always, the program ended with the general meeting of the association, with a report by Jo Wolfe, director of the Skagit County Historical Museum, and the recognition of next year’s officers, led by new president Liza Peth Bott. Before adjournment folks were encouraged to come for next year’s 118th Pioneer Picnic, the first Thursday in August in La Conner.