A Memorable Christmas Parade

As I said in yesterday's post, I have ridden in the Lafayette Christmas Parade as well as in other parades in the area. There is one parade, though, that is far more memorable than the rest.

My high school band had a mounted dragoons unit that rode behind the band whenever we marched and I was part of that unit with my Quarter Horse, Cee Hunt. For this particular parade, we'd headed to Attica, Indiana.

Cee and me, ready to ride in a parade.

The parade was staging and we had just stepped off, coming around a corner to join the main body of the parade. (Parades line up in sections [staging] that then merge together as the parade begins.)

Who'd have thought that tiny Attica would have the Shriners performing in their parade? If you've ever seen the Shriners, or a group like them, you know that they zip around during the parade in teeny tiny go-carts, doing formations, and careening around everywhere.

A group similar to the Shriners performing in the 2021 Lafayette Christmas parade.

As we came around that corner and were falling into line with the main body of the parade, there were the Shiners, zooming around as they practiced their formations before stepping off themselves. Oh, my goodness! How would Cee react to that chaos and commotion?

Good boy that he was, he flicked an ear at them and kept on walking behind the band! Was I ever relieved. (Extra carrots after the parade for you, my boy!)

And later in the parade, when a helicopter loudly swooped low over our unit as we marched? Cee was still calm and kept walking. (To this day, I still wonder why a helicopter was flying over the parade.)

Needless to say, I've never forgotten the time I rode in the Attica Christmas parade!

Christmas Card of the Day