Ralston, NE 4th of July Parade

[garn]

My Aunt who passed away back in May lived along the Ralston, NE 4th of July parade route and every 4th of July was her chance to host the family for a wild party. This year, we gathered one last time before the house is sold to have a good time. Ralston is a suburb of Omaha.

Most years, the parade is nearly 2 hours long and draws 40,000 plus. This year, the rain kept people away and kept the parade to an hour:

Omaha Shriners:

My 8 year old son. The baby teeth are starting to drop like flies now :shock:

Doing sparklers with a neighbor boy. Sparklers are about the only legal "fireworks" you can have in Iowa :roll:

Double rainbow the evening of July 5th:

 

[per]

Thanks Garn, looks like plenty of folks came despite the rain.

 

[garn]

Thanks Garn, looks like plenty of folks came despite the rain.

No problem. Your comments in Soapweed's first batch of parade pics in the Ranch Talk forum prompted me to share the pics that I had, but decided to post them in this forum.

It was a bitter sweet day and debated all week wether or not to go, still wasn't sure when I went to bed the night of the 3rd because we were at my mom's in Shenandoah, IA (about 50 miles SE from Omaha) as I was sure it "wouldn't be the same" without my aunt around.

BTW, I don't know why the pic of my son doing sparklers is so small, I uploaded the picture to photobucket like all the other's, sorry about it being so small.

 

[per]

Too bad fireworks have been abused over the years. It sure is fun setting them off. One of the floats ahead of me in our parade set several fireworks of some sort off. It was causing danger as most of us tractor drivers were taking photo's while driving. :shock: I never got a real good one of that. Sorry about your aunt, it won't be the same but we move on because we still have life to give especially to our kids.