Another Day in the Country: Give it a little time
By PAT WICK
© Another Day in the Country
Seven or eight years ago Ramona had its first 4th of July parade. I'm not sure if you could call it a town event in the beginning, although there were folks in town who got involved. The occasion was the Schubert family reunion which just so happened to be occurring on the weekend of the 4th of July.
Some crazy cousins said, "Let's have a parade," and I fired off a press release to local newspapers. When we got to Ramona for our annual summer vacation we read the newspaper and discovered that our parade had been mentioned in very bold print.
"So now what are you going to do for this parade?" said my sister. "This can't be two kids pulling a wagon down the street! There's got to be something to watch!"
She was right! We started drumming up entrants in the first parade Ramona was going to have since their centennial in 1987. When the time came for the parade, there were a few brave souls on Ramona's Main Street and some even braver entries. The Brunners brought horses, Lori brought her new husband on their motorcycle, we designed a family float, everyone pitched in. Our parade that first year was so short that we went around twice, while Brenden (the mayor) was announcing!
That was the beginning! In 2000, we moved here to Ramona from California, just in time to choreograph another 4th of July parade. It was a good thing our family reunion was planned at the same time again because Cousin Keith drove the tractor, Cousin James brought his old car, Cousin Gary rode a horse, cousins donned costumes and created floats and people from around here pitched in to create our second annual Ramona parade.
There were a couple of years in there that we faltered and said, "Is this worth it?" Things fell through the cracks and expected entrants didn't show up. "Shall we keep this going?" we wondered. But of course, we had to keep this going. We spend more money on the 4th of July than we do on Christmas!
"Give it a little time," I said to my sister. Every year our Ramona parade has grown — slow growth, but good growth! And every year we sit exhausted at the end of the 4th and say, "Let's give it a little more time!"
This year the Ramona parade was absolutely, the best ever, FANTASTIC! We had six floats — wonderful, big, fun-filled floats in our parade and Tooltime Tim only made one of them! (Unlike in some years past when he'd make four or five of them and we'd just pile on people!) We had entries from Marion, Hope, Tampa, and even Newton! (Well, maybe Newton doesn't count because that was our cousin, Steve and his wife Maureen.) In fact, we had so many things in the parade, we got off to a late start just trying to get them lined up!
In the beginning, the Schubert family purchased a couple hundred dollars worth of fireworks and donated them to the parade. People from town threw in their personal stash and that was our show. This year, thanks to The Tampa State Bank and DC Trucking we had the most spectacular fireworks display around! Max and Brian set up the fireworks and Tooltime Tim and his torch set them off and what a wonderful show it was — there wasn't a lag. It was non-stop glory!
"Can you believe all of this?" we said to each other. Everyone in town was involved. The fire department sprayed so that you wouldn't be eaten alive by mosquitoes. David made a Hawaii Five-O car to fit our theme. Jeannie and Tonja planned games. The senior center dished out ice cream until their muscles ached. The musicians played their hearts out and the kids in town danced their hearts out! You simply cannot imagine the level of cooperation — all the way from Angel dressed in her muumuu to Art and Jess picking up trash after everyone was gone.
It's another day in the country and for at least one day, our little town was bustling with friendly faces, overflowing with team spirit, everyone was having fun and we were indeed Mayberry RFD — or better!
