Opening Parade

It's that time of year again here. Time for the parades to begin as each area has some kind of celebration throughout the summer and many of them start those little fireman's carnivals or holiday celebrations with a nice little parade.

And today was the day for the little town of Snow Shoe -about 15 miles to the east of us -to kick-off their annual Fireman's Carnival with a great parade.

We had an easy supper this evening -just some cheeseburgers I cooked on the grill -enough to qualify for a lite supper for Mandy, the kids and me. From the time Kurtis sat up to the table, all he wanted to do was to tell us "Go si." Translated, that means in his vernaculr, "Go outside" as he remembered when he woke up from his nap that Mandy had been talking about going someplace tonight and he apparently wanted to make darned sure we didn't forget about that too.

We got to the carnival/parade location and found a spot to sit -almost directly across the road from where we sat last year. The nice thing about this year though was that where we sat was right beside the daughter of our neighbors across the road -Heidi and her daughter, Kira, who is a year older than Maya -along with a good friend of Heidi and Mandy's -Margery and her daughter, Alexia, who is three months younger than Maya. The three little girls had a great time, getting acquainted and enjoying scrounging together for the candies the people on the floats and/or firetrucks tossed out at them.

Getting settled in our spot took a bit more patience than we had reckoned with initially though as Kurtis was not in the best of humor at first and he kept crying -LOUDLY -announcing to everyone and their brother what he wanted to do -"GO SI!" We kept telling him, Kurtis -you are outside but it took a good 10-15 minutes before he finally calmed down a bit.

Here there are a few of the pictures from the parade. I have lots more than these but not as many as I took last year when I think I got a snapshot of every firetruck, ambulance, band, float than came up the pike in the parade. I missed getting a picture of the entry unit -the color guard and also, of the Bald Eagle Area School band as well. Hopefully next year I'll be more prepared for the opening units.

So here goes -let's watch a little of the parade.

The first firetruck was, quite fittingly, from the Snow Shoe Volunteer Fire Company and this is what Kurtis had been waiting for -fire engines galore!

Smokey the Bear always comes to this parade too.


This was one of the entries from Clearfield's Fire Department. I live in Clearfield County and Clearfield is our county seat which is about 35 miles to the west of Snow Shoe. If I'm not mistaken, I think this unit is something they purchased for special rescuse in the water or something of that nature.

A "brush buggy" from the village of Karthaus -which is about 15-20 miles to the northwest from Snow Shoe. This company had three vehicles in the parade.


One of two units representing Morris Township -which is the township adjacent to where I live, just a bit to the south of Cooper Township.


And here's the entry from my hometown -the good old Grassflat engine!

There were fire companies representing towns from Philipsburg to State College, Milesburg, Bellefonte too -a whole lot more, needless to say, than the few I selected to show you here.

Here's Mandy, holding Kurtis with Maya by her side as they watched this float from the agency that provides the therapists, psychologist, psychiatrists, teachers and case managers who work with Maya and Kurt and who, I have to say, have all done an excellent job with the kids. This float and the photo below it were very much loved by both kids, but especially Kurtis, who loves Elmo!



Now, these next pictures are of some of the members of the West Branch Area High School Marching Band and although I missed getting a shot of the color guard, I had to get this shot because this is "Miss Katie" -the 17-year-old here all decked out in her majorette uniform. Looks pretty darned snazzy, doesn't she?



The next couple of pictures are more of our school's band. They put on a really good presence when they appear and I'm really proud to say considering our school is small by comparison to most of the others in this area, we do have a very good sounding as well as sharp-looking band!





And that's the highlights of the Snow Shoe parade!

After all the firetrucks, cars, tractors, bands and mini-majorette groups had passed by us, we gathered up our stuff and headed to the car. However, when we got to the row where Mandy had parked the jeep, we had a bit of a rude awakening at first. Seems several of the fire trucks had been parked in the driving aisle behind our car and we thought we were gonna be in for a long wait until the drivers returned and moved them out.

However, there were two lucky breaks for us in respect to the trucks being parked there. The first was that one truck -from the fire company in Houtzdale there was a young man, a member of that company, who was seated atop the fire engine. As Kurtis and I walked beside the engine, he sensed that Kurtis was really excited about being that close to a big fire engine and he hopped down and asked Kurtis if he'd like to see the truck "up close and personal." And so, he began to show Kurtis where the rest of the firemen ride when they are enroute to a call, pointed out some of the various types of equipment they wear too.

Then, he asked Kurtis if he'd like to see inside the cab too but I explained to the young man that although Kurtis was enjoying all this, because he is autistic, he doesn't always understand all the stuff he was seeing and hearing. But I asked the fireman if he would mind -provided Kurt would let him pick him up -to hold him by the door to the cab of the fire truck. He agreed immediately but just as fast as he agreed to this, Kurtis decided he wanted no parts of the guy picking him up. About that time, Mandy and Maya, along with Katie and a couple of her girl friends appeared and we were able to get Kurtis to let Katie pick him up so he could see into the cab of the truck. I think you can tell by the look on his face how mezmerized and thrilled he was to see this engine so closely.

After that, we lucked out a second time as by the time we got to the jeep and got our stuff in the backend, the people who were parked in a car directly in front of us appeared and were leaving too. So we were able to pull out then with no need to wait on the drivers of the fire engines to return and move those units!

And that's the end of the Snow Shoe Fireman's Parade for this year.

Hope everyone reading this loves a parade because if the weather holds up and all else goes well, we'll be attending the next parade on the Fourth of July up at Osceola Mills because our badn will be marching in that one too!