Assistant city manager, who handles parks and public works, says city officials experience ‘the chair wars’ with a mix of humor and horror

Along with the patriotic tunes that fill the air on the Fourth of July, there is a game of musical chairs going on in Central Point — a game consisting of equal parts smack-talk and good-natured banter with chairs of every size and color thrown in for good measure.

Participants train and plot, vying for the best spot on the downtown parade route for days and weeks before the annual Independence Day blowout.

For some, the “chair wars” have proven almost as entertaining as the elaborate parade floats and marching bands that meander through downtown on July 4 each year.

What began as some good-natured ribbing on a community Facebook forum has become a piece of small town culture in the Rogue Valley.

Debbie Saxbury, a community advocate who started the Central Point Community Forum Facebook page in 2012, said it started innocently enough. Group members would post photos and scold early chair-setter-uppers while others would post about their chairs, set up prior to the Fourth, suddenly missing from the spot they’d “claimed.”

City officials unknowingly entered the game of camp chairs and thrones with reminders via social media not to set up chairs before 5 p.m. July 3.

Not 4:59 p.m. — which city officials try to enforce — 5 p.m.

Saxbury said chair humor has become a near-daily part of the group dialogue, with photos of furniture left in free piles by local residents drawing one-liners about early parade placement — in February — and residents trying to come up with the best decorated or most outlandish style of parade seating.

“Our Central Point community forum people are always kidding about it all year, making jokes, doing fun things, setting up chairs downtown with signs on them during the middle of the year, just to be silly,” Saxbury said, noting that the chair shenanigans prompted a chair-decorating contest last Fourth of July and again at Christmastime.

Some die-hards decked themselves out as chairs for Halloween, declaring they’d sit wherever they liked.

Like clockwork this week, by early Monday locals were keeping a close eye on the forum and on downtown sidewalks just as city officials Tuesday issued a preemptive “not until 5 p.m. on Thursday, please!”

Tricia Smith, a forum member, declared, “The ‘Taping off, the 4th of July, parade, MY CHAIR SPACE/MY SPOT competition,’ is about to begin!”

“Welcome to The Thunderdome! It is heck week,” quipped Travis Dedrick.

By Thursday morning, owners of Pine Street Treasures reported in around 10 a.m. “All’s quiet on the sidewalk front. … Last year it was interesting, and even a little entertaining, to watch all the comings and goings of — The Chairs. Will there be a repeat performance today?”

Less than an hour later, group member John Foy posted a photo of six or seven mismatched chairs straddling a cement curb on a downtown side street, cordoned off with yellow caution tape.

“That’s what I’m talking about baby. Taped off like a crime scene before noon on July Fourth eve. That’s the CP I know and love!” Foy wrote.

By noon, multiple downtown store owners reported plastic chairs posted along Pine Street with a family of three — bagged chairs slung over their shoulders — carefully scoping out a spot.

Forum group member Brent Yamashita, who moved to the city a dozen years ago and discovered the community group a couple years ago, said he could hardly wait for chair memes to be posted and group members reporting their chairs — placed too early — suddenly missing.

“It’s funny to watch the comments where people are like, ‘Hey where did my chair go?’ Then they have to go figure out where it got moved to. It’s usually like Manzanita and 10th. It’s like, ‘You have to go get your chair because you put it out too early!’” he said.

While he has no plans to stake a claim along the parade route — this year he’s participating in the parade — Yamashita said he’s a sucker for a good laugh.

“We do take a chair out and put it in different places along Pine Street throughout the year, just to take random pictures and post on the group,” he said.

Group member David Stepp said he enjoys the antics of group members who he said “take things a little too seriously.”

“The Facebook group comes to life on the Fourth of July, and so does downtown,” he said with a laugh.

“Last year, we had people on the corner, fighting over their spots. The problem is that people go throw their chairs up early and then people go and move them because they think somebody stole their spot, like they owned it. … I’ve got my posts lined up for the group already. I’ll probably go down and post some photos, act like I’m stealing a bunch of chairs,” Stepp said.

“Either way, I’ll be trolling online and I’m gonna be judging everybody … might even go play musical chairs, see how it plays out.”

Matt Samitore, assistant city manager and community parks and public works director, said city officials experience “the chair wars” with a mix of humor and horror each July 4.

“You can’t know it’s going on and not laugh … it is funny. The shirts are funny. The memes are funny, all the jabs about it … we at the city think it’s hilarious as well,” Samitore said, noting that residents have taken to connecting a rope with chairs attached between street lights and even placing “a full blown couch on Second Street” one year.

Samitore said city officials try erring on the side of embracing the fun, but rules have to be followed.

Two years ago, a sidewalk was blocked by so many chairs, he said, that a community member in a wheelchair couldn’t pass through.

“You can’t block the sidewalk, that’s really what it comes down to. We tell everybody to wait until 5 o’clock the night before. It’s not as big a deal on Pine Street because the sidewalks are wider, but we also have complaints from biz owners because people can’t park,” Samitore added.

“Last year, people were putting their chairs up at 8 o’clock in the morning on the 3rd. We’ve had people try to set them up on the 2nd. … That just doesn’t work!”

Samitore said he sympathizes with parade-goers who feel vested in a certain spot.

“They have a tradition of sitting in a certain spot. They want the shade. We get it. We want people to celebrate the Fourth and encourage them to do so,” he said.

“Just please don’t block the sidewalks during business hours.”

In the end, Stepp said whatever happens “with the chairs” will inevitably make for “some really good people watching” on one of his favorite holidays.

“At the end of the day, it’s about Red, White and Blue and Freedom. Everybody is gonna see the jets for point-two-seconds and we’re gonna pay $12 for an expensive lemonade and we’re gonna get a sunburn,” he said.

“And I don’t know what’s more patriotic than that!”

For details on regional Fourth of July festivities, visit the Rogue Valley Times website.

Reach reporter Buffy Pollock at 458-488-2029 or buffy.pollock@rv-times.com. Follow her on Twitter @orwritergal.