What I Did On My Summer Vacation Part 8 :: Old Fashioned Festival

The Old Fashioned Festival every summer is a big deal in our little town.  There is a carnival, tons of live music, a bunch of vendors selling their wares or advertising their businesses, a food truck village, a dog show, parades, dance performances, fireworks and more.  This year, Geary coordinated the booth for our town's Historical Society.  They had photos and maps and dvds with lots of interesting information for about the history of our town.  I had my jewelry set up with a friend's booth but since Geary had to be at his booth a lot I couldn't hang out in the jewelry booth very much.  Somebody had to stay with the kids.  Poor Noah came down with a little heat exhaustion that weekend, too, so it was good that I could stay home to help him recover.  He was fine after a few days of rest.

This year the main parade route started right behind our house.  As we were crossing through our back yard I suddenly remembered that we should grab a bag for the candy that the parade participants toss to kids.  Geary pointed out an empty 5 gallon bucket in our yard and said, "Why don't we just use this?"  I laughed and said, "Sure!"  

We looked pretty silly with our camp chairs and 5 gallon bucket sitting right on the curb.  I joked that we must look very optimistic but the joke was on me because our kids were the very first children the parade participants would see and since they had fresh stocks of candy and were full of excitement for the parade to begin, they were very generous with their offerings.

Here is a sampling of our favorite parade moments:

A family friend dressed up as Captain America

Johnny Appleseed

It's not the Old Fashioned Parade without a bagpipe!

Super cool old cars

A senior drill team!  They were awesome.

And a senior marching band.  Also, impressive.

Here you can see our 5 gallon bucket is already pretty full.  

We were given comic books, water bottles, mardi gras beads, frisbees, bouncy balls, coupons, and tons of candy.  

And this was only at the start of the parade!

These motorcycles were pretty cool.  They had two wheels in the front and one in the back.

The pumpkin launcher!  We're looking forward to seeing this in action in October.

There were a bunch of tractors in all different sizes.  Those tires were ENORMOUS!

Another bagpiper.

This costume troupe was really fun.

Another Captain America.   I guess these guys perform at parties and events.  Pretty cool.

There was a boxing match on a float!

This funny two wheeled car.

Check out the bucket now.  Almost totally full.  Miles also had a cup overflowing with candy.

More cool old cars.

Square dancing!

The candy just kept coming.  

Minature horses!  Toby was in awe.

By the end of the parade we had this much candy and loot.  It was a little insane.

Some smart businesses passed out toothbrushes instead of candy.  And don't worry, we let the kids pick out their favorites and we got rid of the rest.  Nobody needs that much sugar!

We watched the fireworks from our backyard with bowls of ice cream.  It was an amazing show, like always.   I made a few jewelry sales and Geary said he felt that his booth was successful, too.  The best part is always just the sense of community and seeing the whole town come out to celebrate and have some fun.  Ah, small town life!