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One thing I have always enjoyed…?
A good parade!
What’s not to like!? There’s superfluous smiling and waving. Various flavours of road-side candy (with no ten-second rule for picking it up off the ground). And sometimes, if you’re lucky, there’s Shriners driving around in tiny vehicles, somehow managing to avoid hitting the children, whom they’re also fundraising for…
Not to brag, but in Stony Plain, Alberta, we have an excellent parade, which kicks off an entire Farmers’ Days celebration the first weekend of June. With the bar set rather high, my family and I attended the BoomTown Days parade this past weekend in the tight-knit ag community of Vilna, just an hour and a half northeast of Edmonton.
My goodness… If you go to just one parade a year, let it be this one! Perhaps fueled by the motivation of the world’s largest mushrooms down the road in Vilna’s historic Mushroom Park, the participants were louder, crazier and more generous than the sum of a thousand paraders!
As kids combed the candy-covered street, sirens blared, a clown skipped, a father-and-son monster truck family revved, and Michelle and I exchanged nervous giggles.
Though it can feel chaotic at times, sitting in a combine can also be this fun… When you think about it, you’re practically putting on your own parade every harvest. You’re driving the tractor… waving at family and wildlife… and though it may not be candy, you’re collecting something of value! … And I’m not just talking about manure!
We hope you’ve had a great summer so far!! We’ll be rooting for you – sometimes through nervous giggles – all harvest long!
Talk to you soon!
Because Farming is Forever,
Jared Seitz
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