Homecoming 2019

In my town, the arrival of fall is always signaled by the annual homecoming parade and football game at the local high school. Since the family and I moved back here five years ago, my oldest son and I have made it a tradition to attend the parade, especially since the route brings it pretty much right by our house.

The parade kicked off at the city park at 6:00 and by 6:20 had made it's way to the corner where we set up our lawn chairs. As always, the marching band and color guard led the parade playing a variety of up-tempo peppy songs.

The theme of this years parade was "50 years of TV". I'm not sure how that tied into the festivities themselves but the class floats this year ran the gamut of very good to just ok.

Of course, what's a parade without the local fire department being involved.

Here's the football team, mascot, and cheerleading squad. The opponents this year were the Harrison Wildcats from Cincinnati. By the end of the first quarter, we lead 10-0 thanks in large part to a 56-year touchdown run. However, the Wildcats scored 33 unanswered points to down us 33-10 when all was said and done.

This tractor was near the end of the parade but I just had to take a picture of it. It's not the best picture as the tractor is off-center but to me it just screams "americana". A tractor with a flag on the back of it in the middle of a homecoming parade in a rural town. After the parade, there was a staff and student pep rally complete with fireworks at the football field.

Along with the football game on Friday night, there was also the first annual city fall festival with hayrides, music, and other entertainment. The biggest thing though was the city springing to bring in The Kentucky Headhunters to headline the festival. I remembered them from my youth and songs like "Dumas Walker", "Walk Softly on This Heart of Mine" and "Oh Lonesome Me" and I enjoyed their music as it was more towards the rock spectrum than the country spectrum.

Unfortunately, I didn't get the chance to go as some other things came up (plus it we're in the middle of a heatwave out here), but according to the City they are planning on doing more events and concerts at the park with more "nationally known" acts. Maybe next time I'll get to go.