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"You have to get a good start and keep pedaling hard," Roman said after the event.
The two helped illustrate the contrast between tradition and the present day as seen at Intercourse Heritage Days, which began Friday evening in the town's Community Park.
Against a sea of straw hats and baseball caps, T-shirts and suspenders, eventgoers enjoyed food and activities designed to remind them of the town's rich past.
"I've lived in the community all my life," said Mike Sensenig, who helped organize the event. "It came from the stuff we used to do 30 or 40 years ago, when it was simpler. We used to get together, have town picnics."
Kurt Thomas, another committee member, said the organizers "wanted to do things that take us back."
"We didn't want to carnivalize it," he said. "We have woodworking, sheep shearing, horseshoeing."
Friday night's events included a petting zoo, spelling bee, shoofly-pie baking contest and other attractions, all corresponding to the town's 255th anniversary.
"I want the pig. Last year all I wanted for my birthday was a pig!" 8-year-old Sierra Anastasia said as she hung over the fence of the petting zoo, waiting for her turn to ride the pony.
"All she wanted for her birthday was a live pig and to color her hair black," Darla Anastasia said of her blonde daughter. "She got magic markers."
But Sierra got her fill of animals Friday as she joined her friend Sommer Reeser, 7, in making sheep and goat noises while their mothers looked on.
"It's just such a representation of our area. You've got the townspeople and the Amish all together," Anastasia said.
While the games were fun, the food was business.
Dozens of bakers entered carefully concocted shoofly pies with the hope of pleasing the taste buds of the "local celebrity" judges.
"My preference is to have a really good gooey layer at the bottom," judge Phyllis Pellman Good said. "We judged based on crust, taste, appearance and general comments."
Good, who has written cookbooks about local Amish and Mennonite dishes, said her job as a judge was a coveted one.
"We had a few people start helping themselves to the pies," she said. "We had to remind them this was for the judges only!"
But there was plenty of food to be enjoyed by all, with stands set up by local eateries such as Stoltzfus Meats and Deli, Immergut Soft Pretzels, the Family Cupboard Restaurant, Intercourse Village Restaurant and Lapp Valley Farm.
In addition to great food, the town displayed its interesting history.
The Leacock Township Historical Society was on hand, converting a pavilion into "A Step into the Past," an exhibit featuring pictures of the town's history, such as when the movie "Witness" was filmed in the area in 1984 and when an Air Force plane ran out of fuel and was forced to land there in 1956.
"Future generations need to know how we got to where we are. Younger people need to know our heritage," Historical Society President Dan Gentzler said.
Others enjoyed reminiscing about the area's past, including a game played in the '50s and '60s: donkey baseball.
"You had to do everything on a donkey," Julie Lawson said. "You have to hit the ball from the donkey. It's hilarious. And of course, the donkeys won't go. You've got grown men out there pulling on them."
And of course, the historical society dealt with the town's name: Intercourse.
"It used to be a perfectly good word. Now, since Freud, I guess you can't use it," Lawson said.
The town's name, however, actually stems from either an intersection or a local horse-racing track.
The celebration of Intercourse's heritage continues today, with a pancake breakfast, helicopter rides, an antique tractor show, a candy drop, a tug of war, a skydiver and fireworks, among other events.
Sunday's celebration will feature a worship service, as well as a covered-dish and ice-cream social.
"This is an event that doesn't happen, I'm going to say, anywhere else in the universe," said Myron Stoltzfus, an organizer.
For more information, visit www.intercourseheritagedays.com.
E-mail: dmartin@lnpnews.com
