In our little suburban town of 30,000 people, the annual Walnut Family Festival held last Saturday is one of the highlights of the year. The local Boy Scout and Girl Scout troups, Little League and soccer teams, City Council members riding in vintage automobiles, local businesses, the water department, and a “clean” trash truck from the waste disposal company were some of the participants featured in the parade.
And of course the Walnut High School marching band was there in their sharp blue uniforms. Audrey was taking her SAT that morning, so she couldn’t be with the band.
In the past, I used to be in the parade with Audrey as part of the Girl Scouts, and Mike would be there with the Boys Scouts. Our company Century 21 West Coast Brokers even featured a “float” one year – a painted wooden house the size of a storage shed pulled on a flatbed truck. Elliot and Audrey rode on the float waving from inside the house. Ahh, those were the good ol’ days.
The festival at the park lasted all day. There were craft booths, fundraising carnival games, and lots of food sold by various organizations. There were some good freebies from business such as Staples, the Water Department, and Kissinger Air Conditioning. We watched some of the teachers from Suzanne Middle School get soaked in the dunk tank, that was fun. We took our dog Chocolate to the Animal Control booth and got him implanted with the microchip identifier. They told us it would be required by next year, and we could get it for free with them. Saved me a trip to the Humane Society later.
The best part is seeing your friends from the community there. In a little town like Walnut, we get excited about local festivities like this.
October 30th, 2006 at 2:38 pm
Do you know the name of ther person who was announcing this parade?