The traditional flag tells us how many years this parade has continuously taken place in Beech - we're up to 132. That's a long tradition.
The Grand Marshall this year, Wilma Penland, is the owner of our landscaping company.
This young man right behind the Grand Marshall's car brought the only animals in the parade this year.
That is a pair of chickens in that special trailer that, amazingly, seems to have been constructed expressly for the purpose of taking chickens for a ride.
The Veterans were well-represented this year - some of them were carrying the flags at the front of the line, and their float was almost full to capacity.
Overall, the parade was shorter than usual. Perhaps it was the heat? The Reems Creek Fire Department was about half of the parade. Here's Norris coming up in Old Engine 14, now demoted to 14-3 as the department has just taken delivery of a new, four-wheel drive engine. This truck is 26 years old - older than some of the crews who have been taking it out to fires.
A rare full faced smile from Norris.
Behind him was Mo with a few youngsters (one of the happier ones is "driving" the firetruck). Mo went through Fire Academy training with Norris. Behind her, reaching out to our friend Michelle whose birthday was yesterday, is D, my acupuncturist.
I took this photo of Michelle before the parade started. She thanked everyone for coming to her party. Her mother is on the left and I don't know the woman in the center. The expression on Michelle's face came because she'd just caught sight of my camera and stuck her tongue out at me - but I was faster.
