SAGE BRUSH DAYS FOURTH of  JULY PARADE

Today is the Fourth of July and the first day of Julia’s class reunion events. The town of Buhl, Idaho, is a typical little farming community town, with a traditional parade and evening fireworks for the Fourth of July holiday, except that, a long time ago,  Buhl gave the parade a theme: Sage Brush Days– and goes all out decorating with sage brush and expanding the celebration to include a rodeo and numerous other fun events. This year, we learn there had been a fish fry that sounded like great fun with lots of locals in attendance. We wish we had known about it when we were making our travel plans so we could have been able to arrive a day earlier and enjoy even more reunions!

The Sage Brush Days Parade has grown in size and reputation. People from all over Magic Valley schedule the parade as part of their celebration of the Fourth of July and local families gather for reunions…. It is a reason to be in Buhl!

Today, Julia is enjoying a nostalgic ride in the parade with her classmates, having been in the high school marching band and on several floats for different organizations over the years.  [ insert: parade and town pics]  Childhood friend Linda and her husband, Jim, meet us at the hotel to help guide us into Buhl and the parade staging area. Linda has directions but those go out the window when we encounter a road block on the highway, pushing all the traffic onto the side roads because of the parade.  Jim is doing a great job getting us through town on some back streets that Julia doesn’t remember ever being on! We finally get to the general area where her class is supposed to be gathering. After walking a couple of blocks without recognizing anyone, Linda and Julia head off in search of the class ‘float’ while Jim and Tommy set up chairs, preparing to be spectators from the bus. A short distance the opposite direction, we find familiar faces and the recognition and name connections begin!

The parade trip is fun with Kathleen trying to lead us in cheers and our fight song which some of us never knew the words to anyway since we always played it in band instead of singing it! A few classmates are snagged out of the crowds of spectators as we travel along the parade route. All but one is coaxed onto the float.  We suspect there are others ‘hiding’ in the crowd so we don’t get them.