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Show By JockWallis I July 24th parade This year's July 24 parade was a credit to the community and to those who participated and worked to get the parade in shape. Many people have been critical over some of the local parades. Just recently recent-ly we received an unsigned letter to the editor criticizing a recent parade where it appeared the only music we could muster up was the sirens from police and fire vehicles. The letter went on to ask where were all the civic and service organizations in Vernal? With no school bands and nothing from the local service and civic organizations organiza-tions evidently this person thought the Vernal area didn't do much for parades. But this was not so Monday morning morn-ing at the Pioneer Day parade. We were impressed with the number of persons participating. Youngsters, teenagers and old folks all took part in the parade. One young mother we noticed carried her set of twins, one on each hip, all the way in the twin section sec-tion of the parade. We were impressed with the quality quali-ty of the floats and the Pioneer theme they represented. Another highlight of the parade was famous characters such as Big Bird, Miss Piggy, Kermit the Frog, E. T. and Smokey the Bear who waved at the children and gave them a thrill and made the adults smile. Lots of candy was thrown out to the joy of the children. But one of the main attractions of the parade was a real live marching band. Provo High School sent out its marching band to give the local area an idea what it's like to have a band in a parade. We should be ashamed at not being able to provide our own high school band, but I guess the second best is to import one from another school. A parade without a marching band is not much of a parade. We have to agree with our anonymous letter-writer, letter-writer, we need a marching band. Whose fault is it that we don't have a marching band? Teachers, students, school officials or the community? I think we'll all have to share some of the blame. But now is a good starting point to get the wheels moving to organize a high school band. Certainly, Certain-ly, if the public is willing to support the schools to the tune of $17 million on the recent bond election for facilities we should be able to come up with a good marching band. Back to the parade. Another obvious plus to our community, represented in the parade, were the number of peace officer and fire department vehicles. We lost track of the flashing red light vehicles but we counted seven fire trucks in the parade. This represents a commendable strength in our community. The parade also had many drill teams and marching girls that added to its excitement. We wish to commend those who were in charge of this year's July 24th activities. Not only the parade but the breakfast, the flag ceremony, the sky divers, the ultralight planes and other activities made Monday's activities rewarding for the large crowds that turned out. Thanks for another day of fun activities ac-tivities on the 24th, or the 25th this year, of July. |