Next year we're getting fireman hats

Today was the annual Fire Prevention Parade in Montevallo. It is a TRIP! All the fire trucks in the entire county come to town and parade down Main Street blasting their sirens, flashing their lights, throwing candy and waving to the crowd. There were about 50 trucks in this year's line-up and they held everyone from the mayor to local Girl Scouts. Marcus and I were really excited. This is the reason we moved back to the to the south--community-wide events. (And SEC football, of course) After a quick bite at McDonald's (we went there solely to collect Monopoly pieces--the annual McMonopoly game has started!), we rolled Dean's stroller out to the sidewalk and waited for the parade to start. Dean found a girl baby to flirt with and seemed really excited about whatever was coming.



















(Hey, look! Jen posed for a picture! Pay no mind to her lack of make-up...)
Suddenly, we heard the sound of a drum line and soon, the Montevallo High School marching band, majorettes, dance team and flag corps came marching down the street.














That's the ENTIRE band. If you didn't believe we lived in a small town before, betcha do now! We have seen the band practicing on the field a couple of times and we noticed how few people there were. I told Marcus "Oh, maybe they're practicing in sections." Not so much. At least everyone's marching on the right foot.
Soon, we heard the squeal of sirens. Make that the deafening squeal of sirens. And horns. It was really fun, but I worried that Dean would be scared. He seemed un-phased by the loud sounds, so I held him close, putting a hand over his ear when the noise got really loud. Marcus took some great pictures and caught a good amount of candy.














The parade started with this cool vintage engine, incidentally driven by one of the nice fire and rescue guys who checked Dean and me out after our wreck on Tuesday. It was followed by several Volswagons from the Montevallo Volswagon Club. Yes, we have a Volswagon Club, complete with "Sweet Pickles Buses" as we used to call them.














We call that one "Roll Tide Bug." Anyway, there were a ton of very cool trucks. Marcus was having a blast. He grew up in a family full of firefighters, so this parade really hit home for him.







































































Marcus wants the boat.














This image made Marcus and me cry. We are sappy.
At about this point in the parade, I noticed Dean had laid his head on my shoulder and started to relax. I turned him so Marcus could see his face and...



















ASLEEP. Never mind the BLARING SIRENS, HONKING HORNS and crazy children running around screaming. Can you tell he's a former New Yorker?















All in all, it's a cool event, completely unique to Montevallo. After the parade, we went over to Orr Park where they had booths set up selling everything from Tupperware to shaved ice (yes, I got one!). The local drug store was giving out free shopping bags full of loot. Ours contained Alabama Lip Balm (Roll Tide!), an energy drink, a calendar, some magnets, about 20 individual packets of Excedrin, some candy and a Slim Jim (the sausage stick, not the thing you use to unlock your car). It was a fun way to spend a Saturday morning in our new home town.



















Dean remains unimpressed.