Homecoming

Well well. If there is a more "North American" thing, I can't think of it. Homecoming Queen, Homecoming Dance, Homecoming Fair, and Homecoming Parade. We probably had all of them, but we only got to "take part" in the last two. That is of course if laughing ourselves silly at the people is considered "taking part". Lets just get you in the right mood.



But lets be slightly cronological. We went to the fair first. It cost us a full $9 each, so we made sure we looked at (and laughed at) everything. Its like we stepped into a movie (again). Forgive us for the image quality and composition. We forgot to take the camera, so had to take the pictures from outside. We were NOT going to pay and $9 each, despite the priceless characters inside.


But you get the idea. There were also a million (okay, twenty) of those "pop the balloon/shoot the ducks/dunk the ball - and win a teddy" things. And its the first time I've had to use my "get away from me! I'm serious" voice I usually reserve for dodgy car-guards. They all shout at you to try it and win "your lady" a prize. They also had trotting races on the track. What a silly race. Its like watching competative human walking races. Except the people don't have their legs tied together so they can't run (although, THAT would be fun). We spent most of the time, yes, you guessed it, laughing. At the spectators as much as the jockies-who-couldnt-cut-it. Three words: Mullets, Stetsons and Bellies. Men and woman. Apparently during homecoming, everyone is a cow-person.

On to the parade. Now, the plan was to take enough pictures that I could stick the whole parade together, one float/car/horse at a time and put it up here. Impossible. I have all the pictures, but its about sixty-thousand, so I'll just give you the highlights reel.

Firstly, it's the highlight of the year, aparently. EVERYONE was there.
Lining the streets. Literally.

It started with a BANG! A float. A float with old dudes. Old dudes with pipes. A bird.


Another float. A motorised red-wagon. A Camel. Old dudes on trikes. The wa-wa t-bird patrol (which induced more laughter than can possibly be possible. I nearly wet myself)

A spattering of animals.
Classics. Okay, I actually quite liked these.

And finally, they pulled out all the stops. Mr Deere wanted to showcase the latest and greatest wares before the Harvesting season begins. Thanks John.

Look - its Frank! Okay, go watch 'Cars', then come back here.

A terrific experience. The best small farming town homecoming parade I've EVER been to. I even had a lolly thrown at me. It's been a dull week in the wake of such excitement. We hope to find more to show soon.

Also, is anyone still reading this rubbish? I get the feeling I'm writing for Lindie and me. Anyone?

That is all.