Today is the day we all set aside for the Milboro Parade.  If you went through Milboro any time recently, you might have missed it.  There is a sign on the side of the road that says, Milboro.  And there’s an old building in disrepair that looks like it might have been a store once.  And there’s a big old house that would want some work before anyone would live in it.  There’s not much more than that left of it, but there was a time when Milboro was quite the center of activity around here.  The railroad even maintained a station there and I would guess that a lot of wheat shipped out of that train station and a lot of farm equipment came into this area through that station.  Come to think of it, maybe one or two of the tractors in today’s parade rolled off the train in Milboro some time ago.

    Anyway, for the last nine years, including this one, Milboro’s claim to fame is that it’s place we start the Milboro Parade from.  The parade actually starts at Faith Temple Baptist Church which is a couple hundred yards from where downtown Milboro used to be and it ends at Bethany Methodist Church, which is right across the street from Coho Bicycles world headquarters.

    There are a lot of tractors pulling trailers full of candy tossing people in the parade.  There are some classic cars.  I think there were three fire engines and two sheriff’s motorcycles.  Some nice old pick-up trucks.  And, the bicycles.  We rode near the back of the pack today; there were some quads behind us, but not much else.  And from where we started, we were able to see the whole parade get going because it went out of the far end of the church parking lot we staged up in and then came right on back past us.

    They say that everyone loves to watch a parade and I count myself among those who watch parades, but I’ve kind of gotten to like the idea of riding bicycles in parades.  As much fun as they are to watch, they are a whole lot more fun to ride in.  I guess that’s why the trailers being pulled behind the tractors fill right up with candy tossers of all ages.  

    Of course, you could have a parade without spectators, but they are a lot more fun with crowds along the way, sitting in lawn chairs, and waving back to all the paraders.  And those spectators are a good lot when the parade is a local parade because lots of the spectators are your neighbors and some of them have pretty good senses of humor.  One crowd was picking up candy and throwing it back at the official parade candy throwers.  If John Belushi had been around to yell, “Food fight!” we might have had quite a conflict, but Dennis kept the throttle open on the tractor and the candy war stopped just as the laughing bicycle riders rolled into the conflict zone.

    One little girl, on the edge of a cornfield, was all dressed up in her two piece swimming suit.  She even had her floaty arm bands on.  She wasn’t taking any chances, but others were.  Nevertheless, we all arrived safe and sound at the end of the day.

    I think this year, the parade stayed together better than last year, but I think there were more bicycles in it last year.  In any case, we had a fine day for the Milboro Parade and now it’s time to look forward to the next one.  That will be number 10.  I hope the weather is as nice.  I’m sure all the paraders and spectators will be as nice.  In the meantime, there will be other parades for us to ride in.  They’ll be bigger parades, but they won’t be any more fun than the Milboro Parade.