Today is the day in my home town that the week long Maple Leaf Festival holds it annual Parade. The Maple Leaf Festival Parade is one of the largest in the mid-west, and if you pick one spot to sit, it will usually take over two hours for the whole thing to pass.

I have seen the parade many times in my lifetime, but not as many as I would wish. It is a great local thing, featuring people you know, and many you don't. Some of the local 'floats' are just a small group of local people riding on a hay trailer behind a tractor with a handwritten sign on the side saying something like, "Local Book Club". There are big regional presentations, such as large University marching bands, Anheuser Busch Clydesdale Team, and a handful of Shriner performers.

Local and regional politicians make their presence known, every two years are election years, and this year is a national election, so there are classic convertibles with Senator so-and-so, and Governor whats-his-name riding on the back, and of course the local beauty Queens, and regional National Guard units driving obscenely large vehicles.

The high school football team usually rides upon the largest firetruck we have, and tosses out candy to kiddies, the local 5-8 year old twirling team, chilled to the bone in tights tries it hardest to spin their batons, and the few remaining Korean War Veterans ride past to loud cheers.

It is quite a spectacle, and I would surely have gone again this year, but for the lack of a partner. A spectacle such as this is pretty much no fun at all without someone to poke and giggle.