Springfield Days

Oh my goodness, what a weekend we had!  This was Springfield Days weekend and it was so much fun!  It began on Friday with things going on at the Fair grounds and then Saturday all the really good stuff happened! 

Friday at 6 p.m. a group of us decorated the space we were going to be using for our Cake Walk.  First of all let me just say, I've never done a cake walk.  I have heard of it of course, I DO watch "Little House on the Prairie" you know!  But, I've never actually seen one in progress.  So all these years I imagined a bunch of people in Walnut Grove walking around their little town with cakes in their hands and never quite figured out what happened next.  Well, I found out this past Saturday!  The 1st United Methodist Church of Springfield held a Cake Walk in our local Beauty shop!  We have absolutely wonderful people in our town, for the most part anyhow.  We did have a bit of an "incident" where we ended up having to change venue's at the last possible moment because of someone who wanted a copy of the church "certificate of insurance of liability".  Which would not have been an issue for us at all except for the fact that he asked for it at the last second and wasn't going to give us a key until he had it.  And of course, the church office was closed and there were other issues that just didn't allow us to be able to get anything of that nature that day.  AND we needed to be able to decorate BEFORE the actual day of the Cake Walk!    So anyhow,  Sheryl (beauty shop owner) very generously let us use her space for our Cake Walk (and we asked her at the last minute no less, and she never even hesitated!)  So we went there on Friday night and began to decorate!  We spent over an hour decorating and then we went to the Fair Ground and had a Bar-B-Q dinner sponsored by the Platteview Booster's.  And it was  very yummy!  We then proceeded to walk around the Fair Grounds and checked out the Bugeaters Flea Market which had a great turn out!  Lot's of neat stuff!

So here is my apology in advance.  I nearly always, am having so much fun that I forget to stop and take pictures.  I know, it's bad.  I actually carry the camera with me, but forget to take it out.  I'm working on it though.  So, having said that.  I have NOT ONE good picture of the decorating, the eating of the yummy B-B-Q, OR the actual cake walk.  And with that disclaimer.... 

The next morning, we collected cakes, cupcakes and pies and took them to the shop.  Let me tell you, our church and community is FILLED with the most generous souls around!  We had SO MANY cakes and pies!  We had to set a bunch aside until we could get more room on the tables, which we did!  The Cake Walk was a HUGE success!  Thanks to all the people who donated the goodies and then all the people who came over and participated!  At various times through out the day, we had people crowded 

around the door and kids trying to peek through the windows to see what was going on!  So the way our Cake Walk went down is...  We layed out numbers 1 - 10 on the floor in a circle.  Everyone goes to a number and stands on it until the music begins.  Then they walk around until the music stops.  At that point we had a bingo ball that dropped numbers out and we would have a number drop and call that number.  If you were the lucky person standing on the number that is called...  You got to pick a cake from the table!  And let me tell you, there were awesome cakes to be had!  And those kids that won cakes!  OH MY GOSH!  They were SO proud of themselves!  They walked out with their cakes with HUGE smiles on their faces!  It was such a fun and festive place to be!  I wish you all could have seen them!  (I know, I know, I've already apologized!  Sheesh!)

So we also had the typical small town parade.  Local business's had their floats and such.  We had the local school bands going down the street and the fire trucks and tractors and we have a dance studio in town so the kids from the dance studio walked down and there was even a clogging group that clogged their way down the hill!   (I believe they were from a nearby town). That was actually nice to watch!   We also had the old cars and  the King and Queen of something (can't remember and no, didn't get a photo)  And then of course, at the very end of the parade... we had the horse and rider.  Only one this year.  But the rider was doing the whole lasso thing while going down the hill.

But I think the best thing I saw that day was the Plumbing business and their "float" of sorts!  The

guy, as you can well see (yup I actually took this picture!)  is sitting on a toilet and pulling his sign.  But the really cool thing was that he kept reaching his hand between his legs and into the toilet bowl for handfulls of candy that he then tossed out to the kids!  ;-)  That just cracked me up!  I thought that was the BEST float EVER!  Oh, did you all know that at these parades, the people IN the parades throw out candy?  I never knew that until we moved here!

So, this is what I did this weekend.   And had a great time doing it.  Although...  I had originally planned on sitting on my front porch to enjoy the parade which went down the street right in front of our house.  And you would think I would show you my wonderful porch that is perfect for sitting and watching a parade go by... but, alas I have no pictures.  I keep forgetting to take them when the sun is out and right now, it is so cloudy that a picture wouldn't do the porch any justice at all.  So, that shot will have to wait for another day.  

Anyhow, to end this blog for today I'll leave you with this.  Going to a Parade is fun and going to an event like "Springfield Days" is also fun.  BUT, being involved in the community and and the events... That my friends is the most fun of all!  I hope you all had a great weekend and if you don't have the kind of opportunity I have had, at least, every now and then, stop and smell the roses and thank God for all that you can do! 

 

Have a great week and I'll be back.....  ;-)