The Homecoming Parade

A sure sign that fall is upon the little town where I live is the return of high school football, with the biggest game of the year being the annual Homecoming game. I'm not sure how it is in other parts of the country, especially in big cities, but every year there is a huge parade down the main road out to the high school which is just outside the city limits. Hundreds of people come from everywhere in town and all the smaller surrounding villages and set up shop along the road, with some even tailgating, in preparation of the parade.

I personally didn't have to do any of that. All I had to do, along with my son and my wife, was to walk down a few feet to the corner and take in the parade. Living just off the main road in town definitely has its advantages sometimes. Anyway, the parade set off from the city park around 6:00 and reached my street roughly a half hour later. We could tell it was getting close as traffic has ceased and the faint sound of snare drums inched towards us. Then it came, marching steadily westward up the hill, past the IGA market, and through a small batch of trees and arrived with great fanfare. I was ready to document its arrival with my camera (aka iPhone) in hand.

As you can tell by these photos, this was the marching band and color guard. I considered trying out for the band once in middle school, but seeing as you had to pay for the instrument and the fact that I was (and still am) horrible at making music of any sort, I passed on it. My favorite shot here is the one I took from behind after the color guard had marched past. 

These are the floats made my each class. I'm not sure what the theme was and was confused as one of them said "Seven Mile High" on the back of it. The problem is that there is no Seven Mile High School, everyone from Seven Mile goes to Edgewood. Logistical deficiencies aside, the only float that made any sense to me is the one that says "Let the Knights Fall" as that's who we were playing in the game, the Northwest Knights

Nearly every high school sport was represented in the parade, from ladies volleyball and ladies golf, to the cross country team and football and cheerleading squads from varsity all the way down to the K-1 team.

Along with Trenton, every fire department and rescue squad in the school district was represented as well, including the rural ones from local townships.

Of course local businesses have to get involved too. Lake Bailee is a recreational park and gun range that hosts an annual haunted hayride. I've never gone to it as there is one in Springboro that is really good, but maybe one year I'll go down to check this one out

This photo should give you an idea of how long the parade was. Past the fire engines in the photo, it was just simply local businesses in cars. Not long after this we headed back home as my son was staring to get bored and it was nearly time to get settled in for the evening as I had work the next morning.

One last shot, this time of my son watching the parade.

The next day was the actual homecoming game itself, which Edgewood soundly won over Northwest 42-14. It's always a good day when the football team wins the homecoming game and it's even better when the whole area comes together to enjoy a community event like this.

A Vintage Yard Sale Haul!

One of my favorite things about spring is that it marks the official beginning of yard sale and flea market season. I don't have a lot of time on weekends to hit a lot of yard sales but a long standing tradition in the town I live in is what everyone refers to as "yard sale weekend". The third weekend in May every year is when people come from far and wide and descend upon the town like locusts seeking deals on rusty tools, clothes that are 20 years out of style, and hoards of other things. Much like last year, I went in search of cards, with my wife and son in tow.

Saturday was cool and damp as it had rained hard overnight and into the morning and didn't let up until about 10:30. After the rain finished, out we went.

Cars lined up on Clara Drive

Downtown traffic

More craziness in a newer part of town

Corner of Miami Street and Roger Drive

Unfortunately, after walking about nine miles around different subdivisions and neighborhoods, my search for cards came up empty. However, I did pick up Oz the Great and Powerful and Ides of March on Blu-Ray so it wasn't a complete bust. When I got home, I turned to the community Facebook page and asked if anyone would have cards on Sunday and got three leads.

Sunday was bright and sunny and near 80 degrees. So after a breakfast with friends at a nearby Cracker Barrel, we headed out in the car to track down the three leads from Facebook. The first stop had a decent amount of cards but they wanted 25 cents per card for early 90s junk, or five dollars for a 100-count box of the same. No thanks. Stop #2 on the other end of town was a dud, there was nothing resembling cards but there was plenty of general crap to be had. It was all down to the third and final stop.

Pulling up to a run down, brick house in a shady part of town, I had little hope and pretty much resigned myself that my search would be in vain. Oh well, at least the prospect of an M&M Master Blast from Sonic after this stop kept me motivated.

As I approached the sale, I saw nothing but odds and ends strewn about on tables but towards the back, there was a lady sitting behind a table that had cards on it! And vintage cards at that! Woo hoo! She called her husband/boyfriend/whoever over as she didn't have the slightest clue about any of the cards. I asked the fellow where he came up with the prices for the singles. He said "the vintage Beckett" and "online" to which I shuddered. He mentioned he had boxes he was wanting to get rid of too and pulled out a shoebox, a cigar box, and a random cardboard box filled with cards from the 70s and early 80s.

I asked how much for all three boxes, thinking he would come up with some ridiculously high number to which I would scoff and walk away. However he said "make me an offer", as he spit out tobacco juice into his flower bed. So, after some though I said "how about $25?" to which he accepted, much to my surprise. I asked about the random singles, he said it'd be an additional thirty for those, which I passed on. So, I forked over the $25 and proudly became the new owner of the boxes full of cards below.

What was in the boxes you ask? Well, you'll just have to wait to find out as there were more cards in there than I imagined and its going to take some time to do some sorting. Stay tuned.

Christmas Time Is Here!

The Ohio town where I live is a quaint, country town that is pretty much the epitome of the small town America that John Mellencamp describes in his song "Small Town". Yesterday was the annual Christmas celebration that consisted of a parade, a visit from Santa, and a tree lighting in the center of town. So, instead of cards today, I thought that I would share a few photos from the parade and some of our Christmas decor to help maybe get others in the holiday spirit as well.

It was a cold, foggy afternoon but the holiday spirit was out in full force with the parade traveling down the main road through town and businesses along the route participating by handing out candy canes, goodie bags, and even free hot chocolate. We nabbed a spot to watch the parade from the car since it was too cold to stand on the side of the road.

Trenton's finest led the parade followed by the color guard.

We've got lots of pizza joints in town (but then again so does any small town) but the local Domino's is the one that's most active in the community. They're always sponsoring and supporting the school teams and during the community yard sales in the spring, they sell pizzas at the corner of the main intersection for $5 each.

A local business on the left with a band in the back of the truck playing Christmas songs. On the right, somehow the Grinch snuck into the parade with this sweet car.

These horses were pretty cool to see. The trailer on the right are members of the local Moose lodge waving to the crowd and inviting everyone to the after party later that night.

Here's the main attraction, Santa riding into town on an old fire engine! I couldn't get a good shot unfortunately.

After the parade, we went over to the farm market where Santa was waiting to greet everyone and take free pictures. This was the line to get in.

Here's my two year old son Jamie with Santa. The last few times we've took him to see Santa, he never really liked it or was scared. This year, he really enjoyed it and actually told Santa what he wanted for Christmas!

As far as our house, here's a few pictures of how we decorated this year

A big Christmas "Hello!" from Mr. Snowman!

The heart of our display, inflatable Snoopy, light-up Rudolph with a blinking nose, candy canes lining out sidewalk, and a small, light-up Snoopy that stopped working after the rain we had a week or so ago.

You've heard of the Fantastic Mr. Fox? Meet the Fantastic Inflatable Mr. Fox!

As I mentioned, Snoopy stopped working after it rained really hard one night. One of the bulbs got water in it and shorted out.

Our tree! It's not as big as the Griswold family Christmas tree but it'll do for our little house. I'm hoping for lots of cards under the tree come Christmas morning!

Just to close it out, here's a song that I think represents the season really well from one of my favorite Christmas specials A Charlie Brown Christmas:

Even if you don't celebrate Christmas, I hope you have a wonderful and happy holiday season.

Thanks for reading ... tomorrow, more cards!