The Fourth of July holiday was spent at the fairgrounds in
Humboldt, Iowa in advance of the Winnebago State Rally here. The day started with meeting the fellow
campers who were also here early and then we were off to the races. For some reason, we have never attended a
horse race, but we had no excuse now as it was a two minute walk from the
motorhome. We were given our race
information sheets and instructions on to fill out the forms for picking our
winner for each race. You could win a
small amount of money for each winning pick, if your name was pulled from the
bucket of winner’s tickets for that race. This was clearly not a big time
gambling situation, since you could bet on all ten races for your five dollar
entrance fee. It was interesting to
watch the first couple of races, but honestly, we found it to be a bit less
than exciting. Perhaps, the nearly 100
degrees temp also dampened our enthusiasm.
We did pick a winner in the second race, but did not win the lottery
draw.
Next was the parade which was luckily scheduled for 7PM, thus
saving us from standing out in the midday sun.
As I have mentioned before, we always enjoy the small town parades. Perhaps because I grew up in this kind of
environment, it seems more representative of the local lifestyle than big city
parades. Certainly, watching this parade,
you learned a lot about the town and its businesses. If you had your eyes closed all the way to
Humboldt, you would now know that this is a farming community. At least half of the 160 entries in the
parade were farm related with lots of the old and new farm equipment on
display. Then all the church, youth groups and locals businesses had some sort
of entry in the parade. It was clear
that most everyone knew each other with the parade participants and onlookers
exchanging greetings by name with inside jokes tossed back and forth. It is what we think a small community is
like.
No Fourth of July should end without a good fireworks
display. Humboldt had a good one right
in front of our motorhome. It was great
display, especially for such a small community.
It was a great Fourth of July in Iowa!
15 comments:
What? No marching bands?? I was in the Kirby Community Band for years up in New York. We did tons of those parades, but we had our own wagon to sit on. :)
That looks like a lot of fun.
I love going to horse races. We just do the $2 bet. Maybe we will win one or two races. Usually only break even but makes for a fun day.
WOW...160 entries in a small-town parade is really good. Really enjoy local events. Great parade photos.
The plane was my favorite float...I think that is the real thing.
small town america 4th of July!..great parade!!
I love those small town festivities but not so much in the heat. Nice that everything is close by so if you wanted to go back home you could.
Looks like you had a great parade.
I'm with Judy... marched down many streets playing my clarinet!
Custer, SD's 4th of July parade started with a B1 Bomber flyover and consisted of mainly fire fighting equipment from all over!!! And ended with... well, nothing! Too dry! But we did have a potluck dinner at our campground that was great!
Great looking parade for sure. If there's no tractor it isn't a good parade is my theory. But did you have all the people running for local political offices in their cars?? Glad it wasn't at high noon given the temperatures.
Nice to have fireworks right in front of your site, nothing worse than getting caught in after show traffic!
Nice to have the fireworks in front of your site, nothing worse than getting stuck in after show traffic.
Your photos reminded me of my time growing up on a farm outside the small town of Osage, Iowa. Thanks for the memories!
Great looking parade. Sure liked that monster red machine right at the end.
Good ole country parades are the best!
Living in a farming community, I would suspect people are not quite as happy to see some of that equipment when it is moving down Main Street with a line of traffic behind it!
The company I retired from is a frozen vegetable professor. I lived but 3 miles away and my route was all back roads. Oh yea, lots of times the only traffic was a combine.
Bob was born and raised in Fonda about 40 miles from Humboldt so we enjoyed the small town parade.
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