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Small Town Parade

Small Town hosts a Halloween parade every year. It's quite a tradition with bands and costume judging and store-front decorating contests. Daughter No. 2 helped to paint elements of Monster House on the windows of an insurance agency office and won. One of the agents promised to buy them all pizza. The prize is $100 awarded to the business owner even though the kids do all the work, so one of the agents promised to buy them all pizza. He thought he should at least offer them something, but it doesn't seem likely that he'll pay up.

There was free popcorn and coffee and hot chocolate given out by various groups like Hospice, and every one in the parade threw candy out to the kids. Here is a sucker that landed right in front of me. Did I grab it before the greedy little kid next to me could get her mitts on it? Of course I did.

Sometimes kids think if they throw on a Freddy mask, they are all set for trick or treating, but this year the kids dressed up with thoughtfulness and care. This photo doesn't do justice to the pirate or dog or Shreck, but if you look closely, you'll see a man cradling a sleeping baby bumble bee. Watching him throughout the evening inspired my friend and I to sing a round of the song "I'm Bringing Home a Baby Bumble Bee" until the verse about the squishing, which didn't seem appropriate for this situation.

In this parade, kids in the marching bands dress in costume instead of wearing their uniforms, and there is never a shortage of creativity in what they come up with. I saw a giant whoopee cushion, a sumo wrestler in an inflatable costume, boys dressed like girls, girls dressed like boys, and three blind mice. Daughter No. 2 was one of the mice. Unfortunately I did not get a reasonable picture of them. In this shot, you can see two of them in the background, but my mouse is obscured by Cinderella.

And just to finish off the show, here is a Shriner wearing a fez hat and driving a weird little car. No small-town parade is complete without them.

Comments

Neponset River Bridge Dig said…
Ya gotta love those Shriners,they do such good work. I like the the smaller cars that they used to drive around in.
7:37 AM
dive said…
That looks great fun, Robyn.
We don't have halloween parades over here, just gangs of kids demanding money with menaces and then spattering your house with eggs (which are a real pain to scrub off).

As I get home late from London I will no doubt miss the trick or treaters and be spending much of my evening up a ladder in the dark with a scrubbing brush, cursing volubly.
9:24 AM
Mrs. G. said…
A whoopie cushion? Too funny. I wish I lived in a small town that had parades.
1:03 PM
mrsnesbitt said…
How interesting!
I read your comment over on Kate's blog and had to come and shake your hand and pat you on the back...from one foot hater to another!

LOL!
2:07 PM
Gina said…
Very cool, and I was also going to say that despite their weird hats, the Shriners do great things.
2:17 AM
Anonymous said…
How wonderful Robyn. We have a Xmas parade in the town of Stirling - our next village - each year. I used to have a huge jar of jelly beans to hand out to the kids but now the law prohibits me from doing so (something to do with the food laws or something). It's such a shame because all of the little children loved jelly beans.
Halloween is very low key here, unfortunately. I think it is great fun.
6:49 AM
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