The long awaited parade day arrived at last this morning. The weather was perfect. Henry arrived early. We gassed up the little car, loaded up the candy and headed down the road, about six blocks to the start of the parade. Moth joined us, complete with their twirling banner. Moth would be the runner for our entry, making sure no one darted out into our path. Waiting for the parade to start seemed to take forever according to Henry but at ten o’clock sharp we were on our way. Henry had a blast waving to the large and seemingly endless crowd, tossing handfuls of candy to the many kids along the way. The highlight of the parade was about half way through where many members of our family and lots of friends lined the sidewalk in front of our house. Henry proudly showed off the ribbon we had won which was pinned to his shirt. A good time was had by all!
Power tools and ice cream!
Since Henry loves using tools (especially power tools) he didn’t need any encouragement to drill the many holes needed to ‘plant’ the flowers on the float. There were scores of holes to drill and that he did. In fact, when we were done he asked for more things to drill. We set him loose on a scrap of HDU and over the next hour he turned it into Swiss cheese. When he was done it was time for another long test drive in the little hot rod. Henry proudly waved to all we passed. Our little journey happened to take us past the local ice cream stand. We simply had to stop - as a reward for all of Henry’s hard work!
Where were you in '72?
Yarrow Days and its fun, small town parade have been happening for fifty years next week. The theme of this year’s parade celebrates that golden milestone. Our little car will pull a flower laden trailer and today I painted the double sided sign fastened to it. As I hand painted the period correct lettering I remembered back fifty years to 1972. I was eighteen years old at the time and just about to graduate high school. I had already been painting signs professionally for a little more than two years by then and I was head over heels in love with my lifelong sweetheart Janis who was only sixteen. Those certainly were the good old days and they’ve continued ever since!
