Happy 4th of July!

As you know, I live in a small town. I love some of the unique things about living in a small town. Life is just different than in a big city. Our town has several traditions for the 4th of July, and my family and I look forward to the community activities. First, the local scout troup has a fundraiser and cooks breakfast at the park. They make pancakes, bacon, eggs and hash browns. The entire town comes to the pavilion to eat together. Next, at 10:oo the sheriff comes and closes the main road through town and we have a parade. You will never see a parade like this anywhere but a small town. The parade begins at the church in the middle of town and goes north about 1/4 mile where it turns around in front of my house and goes all the way back to the church... so you get to see the entire thing twice. The parade consists of first the cub scouts presenting the flag, followed by the grand marshall ( usually the oldest person or couple in town who hasn't been the grand marshall in the past.) The rest of the parade is made up of anyone in town who wants to be in the parade. There are kids on decorated bikes, four wheelers pulling trailers, kids on horses, tractors, motorcycles, hay wagons loaded with grandchildren and anything else you can imagine. There is always an old fashioned band on a trailer with people playing accordions, a wash board, banjo, etc. It's a small town so there is no regulation against throwing candy so there is always a lot of salt water taffy and tootsie rolls. The funny thing about the parade is that most of the kids in town are in the parade, so the audience in made up almost entirely of adults. The entire thing lasts maybe 15 minutes.