The 4th of July in a small town.

Category: Getting my garden started | Posted: Mon Jul 13, 2009 5:31 am

Is it too late to talk about, and post pictures of our 4th of July parade, here in our small town of Land O' Lakes, Wisconsin? I also have some of the boat parade from our lake. All of which I'm afraid, fall into the category of family pictures. You know, --- the kind that bore a guest to tears after just a few. There is nothing spectacular about the subjects, or the camera work. It's just our friends and neighbors having fun and enjoying the holiday.
The fourth of July is the peak of our summer season. Because we are primarily a lake community, there are 35 to 40 ( or more, I'm not sure) lakes with in the towns borders, we attract many people during the summer season. A large number of people have vacation homes on a lake, others are guests or relatives of someone on a lake, and still others come here to rent a home or place in a resort for a week or a month, or what ever. It's the time when, the churches on Sunday are full, the custard stand has a line waiting to be served nearly all day, (thank heaven, it's not a Mc Donald's) the gift stores are crowded, the restaurants are full, and the wait could be hours if you go at the prime times. All of which is good for the economy here, and provides large crowds for the fire works on the evening of the 3rd, the parade on the 4th, and the town picnic following the parade.
I've always thought that our fireworks display is one of the best around. It's 15 to 20 minutes of continuous fireworks. There's never a time when there is nothing in the sky over the airport. There is only one pause,--- going into the finale. The crowd ouuuus, and ahhhaas a lot, and the loud report from some of the fireworks echoes through the woods for miles. I have often wondered what the animals think when they see and hear our ranchos calibrations. Anyway, after it's done, and folks are leaving the airport, there is more traffic to get through than after the ballgame in Milwaukee. It took almost an hour to get home, which is normally a 7 minute trip.
The next morning, the parade starts at noon, and proceeds down main street, about a mile ( we keep it short, because there are a lot of old people here, anything over a mile, and most of us couldn't be in the parade) to the town park on the west end of town. If you want to be in town somewhere to watch the parade you need to be there an hour or so before hand to stake a claim on a spot. Not to mention a place to park that you can get to without walking a mile or more.
The Boat parade on our lake is a fun thing, any one can enter, the only requirement is that an American flag must be displayed somewhere on the boat, where it can be seen on shore. There are 2 classes, pontoon boats, and everything else. There are 6 people selected and kept secret, that judge the boats and there are traveling trophies awarded to the3 best boats in each class. The boat parade starts at the public beach, and proceeds the 7 miles around the lake, and back to the beach.
What did I tell you, bored to tears already, and we haven't even gotten to the pictures yet. I just wanted to post the pictures somewhere where I could send a link to some friends that missed out on all the fun this year, and I also figured that there may be a bloke or two here that may get through this oratory, and still be dry eyed enough to look at the pictures.

Waiting for the parade to begin ( photo / image / picture from Calomaar's Garden )

See, what did I tell you, old folks in the VFW. ( photo / image / picture from Calomaar's Garden )

the Grand Marshalls (2) ( photo / image / picture from Calomaar's Garden )

Even some of the cars are old, and some don't make the mile ( photo / image / picture from Calomaar's Garden )