Saturday, December 10, 2005

Christmas in Ball

Today was the day of the Big Christmas Parade in Ball, Louisiana. Ball is a bedroom community outside of Pineville, LA on the Monroe Highway.

As an aside, way back in the early 70's I dated a girl that lived on the Ball Cut-Off Road. We called it Castration Lane, back then.

Fast forward to 2005, and Santa came to Ball this afternoon. Pawpaw had grandkids in the parade, so pictures are in order. The Ball parade has everything.



We start, of course, with the flag. American soldiers carrying the flag. Whoo-Hoo.



Then come the Shriners in their little trucks.



Then, the local car club with the Model T



My grandson, waving at a politico. I think this was the Mayor, who was throwing candy.



Then, we have Grannies in Red Hats. I bet that bunch is hard to handle. Wonder how they got them all on the same trailer?



Then, a big stuffed GI, waving at the crowd and supporting the National Guard.



Pretty girls in red suits. Compliments of the marching band.



More pretty girls in the marching band.



Pretty girls in convertibles. This one is the Queen of the Parade.



Old fart on a tractor. That is an 8N Ford tractor by the way, painted in the grey and red that Ford used for many, many years.



Pretty girls on pickup trucks. You can see where Pawpaw's lens tended to focus. Pretty girls are always a drawing card, and they know how to grow them around here.



Kids from the local elementary school on a utility trailer. They each had their own bag of candy to throw. The little one in the middle, looking at the camera is the kid that made Pawpaw into a Pawpaw.

Small town parades are the best, I think. I didn't photograph everything, of course, just what interested me. Things like kids and tractors and pretty girls and more pretty girls. No pictures of politicos here, as they tend to spoil the fun.

Merry Christmas, everyone.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Pawpaw, your camera has a good focus.

Wild Bill said...

I wish every town in the U.S. of A. had a parade like this.. Looked like they had a good crowd too..