Benton Day 2012

Living in the country surrounded by waving wheat fields is a rather slow paced life.

The fourth Saturday in April is the one day of the year when everyone gets together to celebrate living in Benton.  There are events for the kids, lots of food, and of course, a parade. 

 Since I was by myself today, with Lindsey at school and Rod working on his Jeep's transmission, I decided to hang out with two friends.  Janice had a wonderful selection of jewelry in the shopping section on Main Street.  Kay and I kept her company while she made some sales.

I got this one...It was hard to decide because they were all so lovely.

 Near parade time, people started staking their places.  Attendance seemed really low this year. Our spot is near the end of the parade route.  You can see almost the whole downtown here... the post office and computer store, windmill store, City Hall, community center and co-op.

Three little sharks wait for the parade to start.

How many Shriners does it take? This was only a third of them. I think they came from Wichita.

This is our next door neighbor, but not the golf-course-yard neighbor. This is the goofy-car neighbor.

Anyone with wheels can be in our parade. He has the new lawn mower company in town.

I don't even have words to describe this except "why?"

Not everyone is having fun.

Does the white horse have extra legs?

I want some little donkeys and a little covered wagon!

I think there were at least twenty tractors.  At least.  Maybe even thirty.

More neighbors who got a Jeep after we got ours.  All I can see are those white legs.

All of the emergency vehicles were in town today. All sounding theirs horns and sirens, too.

Quick! Get that bubble gum before the truck rolls over it!


Heading south toward the end of Main street. What a perfect day for a parade.

I didn't take photos of most of the parade. There were lots of flags, motorcycles, golf carts, Shriners, bands, horses, church floats, girl scouts and political candidates. But you get the idea.

Afterwards we went to the Boy Scouts' ice cream social in front of the community center.

I really missed Lindsey today. As much fun as it was, the parade just wasn't the same without her.