Parades of old

This has been a busy weekend...I hope you all had a happy and safe Labor Day.

Friday I went to the local camera shop and picked up three DVD's with my dad's old 8mm movies transferred to them. My dad got a Kodak movie camera in 1953...I was two years old. I remember his pride in showing guests the movies he had taken on a Kodak projector and a pull down screen. He wasn't the best of movie makers...sometimes the camera would turn to his face...of course I knew that was when he was winding the camera. Some of them aren't quite in focus...and some the sun was so bright you could only see spots on the screen.

But he always took movies of the parades in Caruthersville. I started watching these and was absolutely fascinated...people lined the streets all the way down the parade route. Christmas parades...the bands (remember the old wool maroon and gold band uniforms?), floats and lots of old cars and people riding horses (of course they were always at the end of the parade...wonder why?)...he filmed the Centennial Parade in 1957...the Clydesdale's were there, the hearse carrying the casket with the razor in it. Folks loved a parade...

I hope they still do...the Spirit parade in Caruthersville will be lots of fun if people will show up... not only to participate but to stand on the street and watch and wave as the floats go by...I bet if my daddy was still here...he would have his movie camera pressed against his eye and film every bit of it...