DE A & E Reporter

Joel and Mary Lou Broadway have been carting their decorated porcelain dolls and pop guns around Illinois craft shows for six years.

But this year was the first time the couple from Golconda have displayed their wares at the Murphysboro Apple Festival Arts & Crafts show.

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Though it was his first time at the festival, by Friday afternoon Joel Broadway could tell the festival would be a promising one.

It looks like it should be a good show because (the Apple Festival) has so much going on, he said.

Of the items sold at their booth, the Broadway’s pop guns are a children’s favorite.

(The pop guns) are a hit with kids and a tremendous seller, she said.

The pop guns, which Joel Broadway created, are air guns constructed out of pieces of cold and hot water pipes. A small cork with colorful feathers is attached as the projectile that the pop stick can launch up to 10 feet.

I invented it when we were younger because I couldn’t afford toys, he said.

Joel Broadway said the pop gun is a good buy, especially when compared to the toys of today that are so expensive and have such short life spans.

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It’s good when you can have a toy that costs $3 and can last well over a year, he said. Kids that bought (pop guns) last year are still playing with them.

Joel Broadway is his own assembly line when making the pop guns in his garage at home. He cannot accurately estimate how long one takes to make because he pumps out so many at a time.

One would probably take me 15 to 20 minutes, he said. It’s hard to say because I’ll make 500 at a time.

Joel Broadway added that the Apple Festival is a great place for business owners to display their wares because the family atmosphere of the festival attracts so many people.

The 46th Annual Murphysboro Apple Festival’s six-day run ended Sunday with the Official Apple Closing and Gospel Youth Rally at the Appletime Stage.

This was the second year at the Apple Festival for Jan Wilder-Thomas from Brookport. She operated her Happy Moon booth selling tie-dyed T-shirts to extend her message about the random cutting of trees in the Shawnee National Forest.

We’re a family out-reach effort to save the Shawnee Forest, she said. It’s information that needs to be spread.

Wilder-Thomas said the people who attend the festival are what make it such a good time.

The Apple Festival is charming. I had a great time last year, and the people are fantastic, she said. The people of Murphysboro love the opportunity to help save the Shawnee.

Richard Strotham has been working at an apple stand at the Apple Festival since it began in 1952. His stand’s proceeds help keep the festival running year after year.

The money we make is just civic, he said. Everything made from this tent goes straight to the festival.

Strotham said raising money during the festival is a good way to keep the entertainment free and lively.

It was the entertainment that drew Chris Mazurkiewicz, a sophomore in aviation maintenance from Murphysboro, to the festival.

The live music is why I came uptown, he said. The bands chosen to play, like the Boro City Rollers, are really good.

Mazurkiewicz said SIUC students attending the festival get a sense of a different atmosphere.

Being a college student, I can see coming to Murphysboro and escaping the Carbondale life, if only for a day, he said. It’s a great gathering of the people. It’s also a good place mellow out.