Some say that this parade is the oldest continuous July Fourth Parade west of the Mississippi.

Our good friends own an antique car business called Thunderbird Southwest located on Hwy 71 just outside of La Grange and each year they enter a few of their cars and they asked us if we would like to drive one.  We jumped at the chance.

We got to the staging grounds about 8:30 am and it was already bustling with entries and the bar b que pits for the picnic lunch following the parade were already smoking and delivering the most wonderful aromas.

This year there were approx. 144 entries that included floats, bands, tractors, horses, longhorns and much more.  Rick Perry was the Marshall but we never got to see him being 44 in the line up.

The parade took off right as scheduled at 10:30 am and proceeded down the parade route  in an orderly manner and  to our suprise the streets were lined with thousands of  parade watchers young and old and all ages in between.  Families and friends gathered on lawns and businesses.  You could tell that many had driven in from all the  surrounding counties to watch.

The parade took a couple of hours to complete.  It was a little hot as our Metropolitan that was painted up to look like a wind up version of CAR 54 had no air conditioning.   Most every float had individually wrapped candy or strings of colored beads that they tossed out to the crowds. We had candy and went through bags of it. Lots of kids had big pillow cases stuffed with their goodies.  It was so fun to see all the faces and to practice my parade wave ( never used it before!) while my husband drove.

This parade is a true example of Americana with the streets lined with patriotic citizens proudly flying their flags and a great expression of gratitude for the freedoms that have been fought for since our Independence – that  being an American citizen affords us, as well as a  statement of hope that those freedoms will be protected for others Americans to enjoy now and in the future.