You Can Take the Girl Out of the Small Town...

I'm from a small town. Chubbuck. I mean, It's no Arimo, but as far as the world is concerned, it's a small town. I will admit I do love my hometown. I make fun of it a lot (which I'm going to do a lot of in this post), but it was a great place to be a kid and I like going back to visit family and friends. I am more of a city girl though, at heart. I like a certain level of anonymity that living in a larger city gives you (even Salt Lake is a little small for my taste). I like being able to go to the store and not running into everyone I went to high school with. 

Last week I went home to visit family and just happened to be there during the celebration of my little town. When I was a kid, Chubbuck Days was a BIG deal. At least, it seemed bigger... My parents live on the main drag of town, so the parade always went right in front of my house- we never had to go early to save seats. They live right across the street from a church so there was always plenty of parking. The party used to go on all day and have tons of different activities and games and auctions and... it was awesome. Now they have a lame toilet paper parade and lunch in the park and it's all over by 3. 

Come on, Chubbuck, even Kuna Days is more exciting. They have a mud run, vendors, food and fireworks...

I'm not much of a fan of small town parades. The only attraction these days is year supply of salt water taffy you may pick up of the side of the road. When I was a kid there was thought put into the parade. There were floats. Like, real floats with people on them. Anymore the parades are just cars and trucks... well, let me just get to my point.

I could have slept in- but I chose to sort of be a part of the festivities. I sat on the porch of my parents house. I took a few statistics as the parade went by.  (please note that some of these are doubled up, for example, a pick up truck may also count as a political entry)

There were:

• 39 Pick up trucks
• 48 Commercial entries
• 7 Old cars
• 5 Sport cars
• 7 other random cars or dune buggies
• 12 political entries (that I noticed- I started counting this one a little late in the game)
• 7 Heavy equipment entries (being hauled on flatbed trucks. We didn't even actually get to see them in action!)
• 40 little girls doing cartwheels
• 5 actual floats
• 2 street sweepers.

Now see, when I was a kid there were horses- and bands- and cheerleaders and stuff that made you hometown proud. Now it's just an hour long string of advertisements.

There were a few things that I thought to take pictures of. You'll have to excuse the pictures- I was mostly lazy and sitting on the porch while taking these- so you get a view of the crowd more than what I meant the picture to be of- but remember, I was being a grouch and this  was the most I had the motivation to do.

 One of the more traditional entries is the trolley bus. I don't know. I personally have never used public transportation in Idaho...?

There is usually an entry with a local musical group. I actually like these. I wish there were more of them. But it seems that the music is slowly dying. Sad.

 Here's an example of the heavy equipment. Why...? Just... Why....?

 At least a few of them got somewhat festive and at least put balloons on their entries. I used to call these "toilet paper parades" but the balloons won out this time.

I was a little more encouraged when I saw this one go by. Granted, it's still just a flatbed truck- but at least they went to the effort of putting green glittery stuff on it.

Now we're talking. Superheroes. Although one of them is a kid my niece goes to school with and called her a not very nice name. We don't like him. If I'd've known it was him, I probably would have kicked him in the shin. NO one says mean things to my babies!

But at least they made something of a try. It's a bounce house. Huh... Ok. They never did that when I was kid, but points for trying- and for the cute little old veteran they had riding it.

This one was the first *actual* float (when say "float" I mean more than just a flatbed truck with some hay bales on it- granted, you can see that these are being pulled by trucks, whereas a true, actual float you would not be able to see right away what is powering it- hence- float). There was more effort put into this one. Way to go Pizza Pie Cafe. We had lunch there later that day. Thanks for the coupons.

This one was clearly the best. A real float that someone put a lot of thought and time into. I like floats. They are why I watch parades. I love the Days of 47 parade, and the Rose bowl- because they have incredible floats. This one did my little town proud. I don't even know who sponsored it, but really, really well done. You win the prize.

What's the prize? Bragging rights of being the only entry that didn't get made fun of, of course.