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.

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.

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!