Pictures from our town

[kimmer]

Beachcomber Days Parade

Just a few pics. We have this annual parade here. No bands.  (They really have to work on that!) But lots of small town "smaltzy" stuff.

Colors were presented by the local Coast Guard unit. Strangely I was the ONLY one in my area who stood up and placed my hand on my heart. The result? I got a nice smile and nod from the unit.  Even stranger, near the mid point was this political bus (it's a long story filled with loads of small town gossip that covers 2 towns, 2 parades, hundreds of letters to the editor and clashes between the newspaper editor and other groups) ... anyhow this bus was a NON EVENT! I would have jumped for joy but the Sheriff's mounted Posse was right behind the bus and they had orders to "deal with" ANY reaction.

Back to the good stuff ... there were over 2 dozen firetrucks/emt units from our town and the one just down the road. Every unit thrilled us with their lights, sirens, and other fun things.

The mini horse was stopped in front of me and this young boy called out to the horse and it turned its head, looked at the kid through the big ol' orange sunglasses the horse had on and NEIGHED nice and loud. Silliest thing I've seen. I busted up laughing and almost fell off the planter box I was sitting on.

The clowns and the hearse. Those were cool and the guy could really play the calliope.

The Shriners were having so much fun driving their cars and waving at all of us and they almost ran into a parked car. HAHAHA!

The bummer was the kid who broke his leg. No adult supervision on the float, so the young kids were jumping on and off. One boy got his leg caught in a hay bale, fell onto the ground and that was when the float moved forward and ran over his leg. He went to the hospital with a broken leg and will spend the summer learning a hard lesson.

From there it was to the library for our "Ready or Not" grand opening where I greeted folks, handed out book bags, and had a blast. Cannot wait for the building to be totally finished. It's so beautiful inside and we will have twice the space!!!!!!!!

I was in a hurry heading out and failed to grab my extra camera batteries, so I wasn't able to snap all the pics I wanted (had to save the almost dead batteries for those last few shots!) ... anyhow ... just a few fun pics to look at if you're interested.

By the way, I also forgot the sunscreen, so today I am almost as red as the firetruck!

[jwboyd]

Ah, the joys of small-town life!

We have lived here in Lebanon, Indiana for about a year. I understand that the Fourh of July celebration lasts a month! Sounds like fun.

[kimmer]

A month of celebrating! Sounds grand.

Our fireworks are on the 3rd, as are those up the road a few towns. Then on the 4th we can south one town, or north one town for more celebrating. So only 2 days ... but still it all adds up to 3 parades from May to July. Not bad for little towns.

Enjoy your partying, JW.

[jcarter]

Great photos, and we too love the small town stuff.
Most years when the weather is OK, we go up to our house in Maine for the 4th of July stuff, and the grandkids love the parade. The little local Fire Department is the best, they win hands down.

Sadly all our albums were hosted by Club Photo which went under without any notice, so none of us were able to download our photos. Winkflash is trying to deal with this, but are not having much success.
If our photos ever get back up, we will post our little Fire Departments great 4th parade. Plus all the fireworks pictures.
Wish us luck,
Jane

[Gregg]

I get a taste of the small town life when I go visit family in a little community of 1,000 or so. I don't know if I could get used to that on a permanent basis. There really is a "good old boys" network, and everybody knows your name. There are some good things, and some not so good... It's a slice of Americana, for sure. Norman Rockwell would have loved the photos!