A Christmas Story revisited

Stepped out of the office this afternoon to see the 2006 Scott County Christmas Parade pass by ... it was way too much like the one Ralphie and his family attended in the opening scenes of the movie ...

Every fire truck in the county was there, and all had to hit their horns frequently, in case any of us still had a tad of hearing remaining ... I hope no one in the county had a housefire while this parade was going on ... some guy had backed his rattly pickup truck next to the street in our parking lot, tailgate down, and he was letting four little boys (all ages 8-10, I'd guess) run totally wild .. they were running along our retaining wall, wrestling each other in the street while picking up candy, etc., almost got run over by a float twice, and being typical rowdy little boys, I suppose, but it sure got on my nerves. There must have been 50 beauty queens (I use the term quite lightly) of one variety or another ... a wide array of homecoming queens, buy-a-trophy pageant winners, Fairest of the Fairs, and plenty that I'd never heard of (I wonder if they were invented?).

It was a LONG parade, as usual, (probably more entries than in the Knoxville parade), and aside from the aforementioned fire trucks and wannabe beauty queens, there were a few (but not many) floats, old cars, three antique tractors, and about 10 horses, one of whom dropped several large steamy horse apples right in front of our office. (The little boys were so caught up in the excitement that I thought they were going to run out and grab those, too.) The Oneida High School/Junior High School Band was the only musical entry, with a total of 21 playing members, and it was about 3/4 of the way toward the back. They got new uniforms (last year?) and they look like crap ... very cheap looking.

Oh, and one float was closely followed by what appeared to be a homeless man transporting his personal effects in a grocery cart.

Yep, a typical Christmas Parade in Scott County ... don't you miss it?