The Corn Festival Parade

The first Weekend in August is when the City of La Habra celebrates it's Corn Festival. This event has been celebrated for many years, and a lot of people participate in various ways. There's a carnival with rides, food booths, game booths, craft booths, and vendors of many items (kind of a swap meet). This carnival begins on Friday afternoon, and continues to Sunday evening. On Saturday morning, a parade goes down La Habra Blvd. This year, just like last year, my wife Laura and my daughter Nina were in the parade. Nina is a cheerleader for the local Pop Warner football and cheer league, The La Habra Lions, and Laura is the cheer coach for Nina's squad.

Here's Nina's squad - Flag Blue - getting ready for the parade. The youngest squad of cheerleaders is the only one that gets to ride on a float in the parade. All the other squads of cheerleaders and football players have to walk the parade route. Nina is second from the right.
Here's a picture of the float the flag squad gets to ride on:Here's a close up of Nina (on the right) and a friend of hers, Isabel. Isabel was not on Nina's squad last year. In fact, there are six new cheerleaders and four returning veterans.Laura took this picture of the boys Flag Blue football squad as they headed towards the start of the parade route. These are the boys that Nina and her squad will be cheering for over the next several weeks as the games are played.

Unfortunately, I don't have any pictures to share from my vantage point on the parade route. Laura had our digital camera with her to take all these pictures (and more), and I wasn't going to use our old camera (the kind that takes a four letter word beginning with F). I did last year, and as you can see by reading my post from then, the picture quality isn't that great. What you don't get to see in this post is just how good my vantage point was. I will briefly describe it.

Towards the end of the parade route is the competition and judging stand. Across the street and a few yards west from that is the La Habra Community Center. In front of the center there is a strip of grass separating the parking lot from La Habra Blvd., and this grass strip is raised up like a grassy knoll (no, not like the one in Dallas). Because of the grassy knoll, I get to see over the tops of people's heads sitting on the sidewalk in front of me. Well this grassy knoll is becoming so popular, I'm having to get there earlier each year in order to secure a spot. This year, I was there just after 4:00 a.m. - and I wasn't the first one there. By 5:30 a.m. (4 hours before the start of the parade) all the available spots on the knoll were taken. Ten or 11 EZ-Ups side by side and dozens of folding lawn chairs, patiently waiting for their occupants, being watched by a handful of guys willing to give up sleep to secure the best spot.

An update on Laura. She's doing better both emotionally and physically. A few days ago, she underwent a surgical procedure that was recommended after someone suffers a miscarriage. In the days following that procedure, she's been in a lot of pain associated with the anesthesia. She has not been able to practice with her squad, and didn't think she would be able to be in the parade. She felt well enough to participate, but luckily she didn't have to walk. Her dad drove her in a small gas-powered cart and followed behind the cheerleader's float.

Thanks to all of you who left comments on my last post. Your kind words were very encouraging.