St. Patrick’s Day Parade
The St. Patrick’s Day Parade at Bagnell Dam on March 15, 2008 started out cold and rainy. Chester Vance borrowed his son’s twenty foot construction trailer and ten of us met at 11:00 am on business 54 to decorate the trailer. It was no easy trick to get everything attached with the wind and rain blowing and our fingers freezing. The brave souls who weathered the biting sting of wind and rain were, Jeanne and Larry Laminger, Don Plewa, Marty Aerne, Sandy Ferguson, Chester Vance, Bill Smith, and Rosina Moehlenkamp.
Fortunately, when the parade started at 1:00 pm the rain stopped, but then the wind picked up. BRRRR. We played music and danced our way down the strip throwing beads and candy to the spectators. We tossed over 600 beads and 10 pounds of candy.
When the parade ended we had to disassemble the decorations and as soon as that was done, we went to the museum to decorate for the dance that night. Charles Stone and Vicki DeEagle joined us to help decorate the hall. Seven of us went to Dempsey’s for corned beef and cabbage and then it was time to get warm and change for the dance.
Our St. Patrick’s Day dance was the largest attended so far this year. We had a great group of people and several members brought goodies for us to snack on. I think everyone had a great day even though it was a long day, and at times bitterly cold. Our thanks go out to everyone who helped make this a fun day, and a successful dance.
1st Place Plaque Presentation
All our hard work and efforts paid off with the presentation of the 1st Place Plaque (out of 97 entries), for best in the Civic Division.
Pictured above are: Rosina Moehlenkamp, Michael and Michell Lasson, two of the Official Judges for the Parade, Bill Smith, Gina Deandrea, Cindy Vaught, presenting plaque from Bagnell Dam Association of Realtors, Jeanne Laminger, Joe Deandrea, and Larry Laminger.
Winning first place in the Civic Division of the Parade was pay off for all the hard work everyone did to make the float stand out. We painted rainbows and placed pots of gold at the end of each rainbow. Skirted the float with a “Happy St. Patrick’s Day” border, and put green fringe around our railing. We all wore green derbies and green sashes with “Swing Dance” in white letters across the front that Sandy Ferguson made. We put leprechaun decals on the sides of Chester’s van, and away we went.
