The Light Parade in Dade City

Friday – On our visit to Dade City we had discovered that there was to be a parade tonight. A parade of Lights no less. Dade city is a small town of a few thousand people, it is quite rural, it has a main street (called Main St), a town hall, a courthouse, several sheriffs and deputies, a High School and several elementary schools. It is big enough to have a Wal Mart, though not a Super Wal Mart. We were told the parade would start at 7.00, so I took a chair, with Sally in her power chair, and we drove into Dade City. Sally, with her usual panic, wanted to get there about 6.30. we drove into town, up Main St, to find that the street was already lined with people, all with their garden chairs, (most people at public events carry chairs with them and think nothing of sitting down in the street. Most of the bluegrass festivals we went to had no chairs provided, you brought your own), waiting for the parade to start. We parked and went back to Main St and only just managed to find a space to sit. On our left was a large and noisy local family, to our right was a couple who had just arrived from Indiana, behind us was a family with a cheerlead daughter, who had just left one of the high school bands as their principle cheerleader and she gave a running commentary on the bands. Speakers on the roadside kept us informed of the event, with the town mayor doing the commentary. The parade stared early at about 6.50, with a fire engine and police car blaring away. Closely followed by a school marching band, then came the sheriffs on horse back, followed by a little man who collected all the horse droppings. The came all manner of floats, cars, trailers, people, dancers, twirlers, cheerleaders, gymnasts, horses, Golf buggies, Monster trucks, hot rods and carts. There were four school marching bands and a civil war re-enactment society. Each float entered by a business or charity. All were lit up with Christmas lights and every participant seemed to be throwing things in to the crowd, sweets, necklaces, toys. Each wanted to outdo the previous float. There were plenty of kids, who ran out in the road to collect the booty, in a most reckless way, no one seemed to object and saw it as part of the fun of the night. Most of the parade was local, but it went on for 2 hours, until 8.45!!!!. A great night.

The Soggy Bottom Bunch were well under way with jam sessions when we returned, as they wre all weekend, I joined in on some and we had a great weekend. We are now officially paid up members of the Soggy Bottom Bluegrass Club.