I Love a Parade

In the excitement of the weekend (Mother's Day! Commencement! Thwarted dreams!) I forgot to mention what ordinarily would have been my favorite part: The Small Town Festival parade.

Oh, I do love a Small Town parade, whether it is in my small town or in someone else's small town. I find every bit of it endearing, beginning with the color guard of veterans whose unison marching may not be perfect but whose patriotism is unparalleled.

I love that the grand marshal's wife is a friend of mine,

Hi, Mary!

and that another friend is a city commissioner and riding the antique fire truck ("The oldest working firetruck west of the Mississippi!")

Hi, Tom and Greg and Tag!

I love the parade of antique tractors (some driven by girls)...

Love the matching T-shirt

...and the clowns throwing candy, and Tessie, the K-9 dog.

I love the floats, especially the ones that have kids on them wearing sunflower hats and waving to the crowd...

...and I love the horses with the sunflowers braided into their manes, and the kennel club with the sunflower-festooned dogs that were so beautiful I forgot to take a picture.

And most of all, I love being a judge of the parade entries and being able to give out ribbons and this trophy...

Husband as hand model

...and tell the entrants how great they looked and how proud I was of them for being in the parade, and encouraging them to put the ribbon up on the float where everyone could see that this entry was pure WINNER.

I was having so much fun that Husband took a picture of me handing a ribbon to a kid so that I could post it with this entry. He snapped the shot directly from behind, just as I bent over to get to the kid's level, so you can bet that shot will never see the light of day. It was not a winner.

But the parade? Practically perfect.