Parade of Generations

The half marathon (see previous post) was held in conjunction with the Morgan County Fair. After my epic run, later that day I rode in my first parade. The Morgan County Fair this year celebrated it's 100th birthday. The fair board asked families with century farms (farms that have remained in the same family for the past 100 years) to participate in the parade. That included my family.

My dad got out his tractor to pull the trailer behind.

My Grandmother and parents represented their respective generations.

Then there was me. Yep, all of my siblings had one excuse or another and somehow got out of it so I had to represent our generation. I will admit I wasn't very excited to be in the parade. My girls and their cousins were all very excited to ride the "float" and represent their generation. We all had our matching cattle brand shirts and we were set to go.

The kids threw candy and little farm toys to the crowd. That lasted for the first half mile. Then we were completely out. I said to them, "Just smile and wave kids. Just smile and wave." As I got on the float I realized I grabbed Ethan's t-shirt instead of mine. His shirt has a big hole in one armpit. I had to be careful to only use one arm in order not to flash the crowds of people. I must say I did the elbow-elbow-wrist-wrist with style! By the end of the parade I had the parade wave down and the kids were happy as can be!

I will admit that it was way more exciting than I thought it would be. It was fun to see people who I have seen in years. People from the streets would call us out by name, that only happens in small towns. That is what makes it all so fun!

Small Town Girl

As most of you know, I grew up in a small town not far from here. This past week I spent a few days at the Morgan County Fair, the Biggest Little County Fair in Utah.

I went to the parade. (I left my blasted camera home. This is really upsetting because I seriously take my camera everywhere I go. I have a camera in my phone but in my mind, that doesn't really count as a camera.) Anyway, I realized half the town was in the parade and the other half was watching the parade. The owners of the few businesses in town, threw some crepe paper on their pickup truck or four wheeler and called it a float. They all handed out candy, popsicles, or toys. My kids loved the great variety of candy, noting the candy was not just taffy and tootsie rolls. I was sitting next to my brother, who still lives in town, lots of the people going by in the parade called out to him. Almost everybody knows almost everybody.

There were plenty of horses in the parade and yet, not a single pooper-scooper that this city girl has grown accustomed to. You see, back home, horse poop is nothing more than fertilizer. As I giggled at the parade, I noticed something......every single person, in the parade or in the crowd (if that's what you want to call it) was smilin'. Not just a little smile either. Everybody was happy! This was the biggest thing to happen all summer and we were all just a celebratin'.

Later, I took the kids to "kid day" at the fair. I enjoyed seeing a lot of friends I went to school with that I haven't seen in years. It's always great to see their families and how much they've grown.

My boys enjoyed winning African Dwarf Water Frogs.(Really? Do we need more animals around here?) I'm guessing we do because Esteban, Ethan, and AJ all threw a ball into a cup winning a frog each. Yeah!!

My nephew, Easton, was part of the Jr. Livestock Show.Yes, that is a leash on a cow. (Steer, is the proper terminology. I won't go into details about why he is not considered a bull.) Easton led his steer into the arena where the steer was judged and Easton was judged on his ability to control the steer and make it stand nice an' straight. I've never seen a livestock show, (I did watch a dog show once on TV.) and I found it fascinating and a bit smelly but, that's all part of the experience.

Vanessa had no worries paying $3 to ride one ride that lasted all of 1 minute...

....as long as she still had enough money to buy cotton candy bigger than her purty little head.

That was all before she discovered the fish pond. She was set for the rest of the afternoon. My niece, Holly, didn't give a hoot about money. She was all about the free "human car wash".It really was a fun day! It was great to be reminded of small town life. A man from town, driving to get more ice for his snow cone shack at the fair, was killed in a car accident. His baby was in critical condition. As the news of the accident spread, the love and support was overwhelming. People were lined up at his snow shack paying as much as $10 for a small snow cone to help the family raise money to pay their medical costs. Jars for donations were placed all over the fair. One jar alone had almost $500 in it. The family will not be alone as friends and neighbors pour in to help in anyway they can.

There are lots of little things in my small town that seem a bit backwards, there are even more things in my small town that seem just right. A neighbor helping a neighbor is never backwards an' back home, everybody is your neighbor.

Small Towns

I've been thinking a lot about small towns today. I've mentioned what it is like to be from my hometown. I used to say as a teenager, when I did something wrong my parents would hear from someone about it before I did even it. You have less privacy when you know every person on your street. In cities, you can be anonymous but, when tragedy strikes, it pays to not be anonymous.

Aaron and I returned to his hometown for the funeral of one of Aaron's closest childhood friends. He was killed in a snowmobile accident last week leaving a wife and four young kids. I've known Shawn almost as long as I've known Aaron. It was a very hard day for us.

The line for the viewing stretched all around the church. The funeral was packed. As I looked at all the people at the cemetery, I thought about how much love and support people show in times of tragedy. I think the entire small town takes it personally when one of it's own dies.

They also show support in good times as well. Everybody is rooting for Blake Lewis on American Idol. The woman he calls grandma lives in Aaron's hometown. The problem is the with over 30 million votes each week, the few hundred from Franklin, Idaho might not really matter. It's a good thing that more people around the country vote for Blake.

I've noticed there is more patriotism in small towns. I think it has something to do with the land. In the city, there is less of it, you really don't feel ownership. In the country, you work the land every day. You become a part of it and it becomes a part of you.

It's interesting to me. Aaron and I have lived in the "outside world", we had incredible experiences that we will always cherish, but when we thought about raising our children, we returned to our roots. We realized that a small town is where we wanted to be. We want to teach our kids to work the land, to truly love their neighbor, and to feel what it is like to be a part of a real community.