Isle Days Parade 2008

The wind blew, the rain fell and Alan Ilstrup drove the library cart for the Isle Days parade July 12th. It was wonderful to have such great help including from Carolyn, Kizzy and the kids who made the float. They decorated the three layers of books with cotton balls, markers, stickers and jewels on freezer paper. On the top of the cake were candles which we made out of straws and shiny stars. It was meant to celebrate Minnesota's sesquicentennial.

Everyone brought something or someone to help make our parade a success. Carolyn brought her camera and her lovely daughter Saffron. Deb brought along her daughter and baby grandaughter, Vienna. Hannah brought her wagon and her sister Katie. Ann brought daughter Allison and cousin. Kizzy brought Isaac and I brought stickers, buttons, bookmarks and flyers.

My co-worker Deb , her husband Alan, daughter Katie and baby Vienna started out at 5:30 at city hall. We were hoping to drive the cake and cart down to the starting point, but things wouldn't fit in my little car, so we had to push the cart down Isle Street. Happily the wind did not tip over our cake or blow our signs away. After pushing for five blocks we saw a couple of fellows with neon green vests holding clip boards and directing traffic. We asked them where we should should be in the parade line-up. They didn't find our names on the clip board list. They sighed and put us at number 19 and 1/2--between the tractors and the Dairy Princesses. The dairy princesses admired our hats and asked where we got them (Rhode Island Novelty).

As we waited for the parade to start, our helpers started coming. First we saw Hannah and Katie in their decoarted wagon. Next came Carolyn and Saffron. Then there was Ann, Alison and her cousin and finally Kizzy and Isaac. I handed out hats, but some blew away and some people just didn't want to wear them. I handed out goodies, so everyone would have something to give away as we walked down the street. We also took a few pictures.

Unfortunately, after we finally got going the parade went way too fast. I started out trying to hand out a sticker to every child and a flyer to their parents. The flyers I soon notices were far too cumbersome so I quit offering those. I never even pulled out a button from my pocket until the very end when I ran out of stickers. I handed out as many stickers as I could, but would soon have to run to catch up with our cart.

The end was a flurry of activity as children rushed the cart to try to grab stickers, bookmarks, buttons or anything. We had to say, "sorry all out", just to keep moving. The rain started to fall as we took the alley behind the liquor store back to the library. I was with Alan, the cart, Carolyn, and Isaac. Deb, Ann, Allison, Saffron, the cousin, Hannah and Katie were on the otherside somewhat behind. Soon everyone met up on the library steps. We were all exhilerated with the odd flurry of our running and stickering. It went extremely fast--less than half an hour. I asked Isaac and he said he thought it was fun. I think Carolyn did too and Alan didn't seem to mind pushing the cart. Deb said she thought he liked that better than watching the parade. We'll just have to see if we ever do this event again