July 10, 2005 - Lebanon, PA (Hershey)

Wilmington, OH, isn't a very large town, and that's just fine by us.  We rather enjoy small towns more than big cities.  When we went to the local visitor center to get information, I asked the helpful lady where the best parade was for the 4th of July, and where the best fireworks would be as well.  She suggested Blanchester for the parade and Wilmington for the fireworks.  Good enough for us!

The young family we sat next to for the parade was really in the spirit of the day.  Loved those hats!  And then the Blanchester High School Marching Band.  Except we were both fumbling with our cameras and missed the banner stating all that!  Amazing.  Two very different cameras, two distinctly different photography styles, two people who can look at the same thing and see two completely different things, and we both missed it.  Unbelievable!

Can't have a 4th of July parade without politicians and kids, can we?

Or the Scouts.  The wolf, bear, and tiger are levels of accomplishment of the Cub Scouts as I recall.

First time we ever saw a funeral home ad in a parade, but it's just another local business.  One of the fun things for us in these parades is when the participants yell at their friends on the sidelines.  And there's lots of that going on!

From the big to the little.....and did you know there was a tractor called a "Cockshutt"? I never did.  Looks like an antique to me.

Hard to tell which of these young lovers was actually driving that Allis-Chalmers.  And talk about cheerleaders!  They had more cheerleaders than we'd ever seen.

Cheerleaders for all ages.

The dog club and the "Miss Ohio" contestant.

Not sure why we thought being "Goat Queen" was a dubious distinction, but we did.  And this mess of kids with the float are all from a local church that was advertising their summer program, "Jesus Jungle Adventure".

If the program is nearly as much fun as the parade participants, it should be a real blast!

We couldn't figure out what these folks were doing in the parade, but they were having fun I guess, and then I took yet another picture of Barb's head....

...while she was taking a picture of this old fire truck.

These fire trucks were at the end of the parade, and just before the finish they peeled off down the highway going North in a big hurry.  I wondered if perhaps they'd been called to a fire.  Later, as we were heading north to go back home, we came to the town of Clarksville, and there were the fire trucks just finishing that parade!

I'm a sucker for car shows and, frankly, hadn't expected much here in the middle of all the corn fields.  Was I ever wrong yet again!  There were easily 300 cars shown here.

All kinds of cars!

Don't see many of these little cars any more.  Buddy of mine had one in high school.