Small town fun

Last year we missed our favorite small town festival, The Pink Tomato festival, when we went on a mission trip to New Jersey. It’s starting to feel like a summer tradition for us and we were excited to get to go this year. We arrived for the parade Saturday morning.

We got there too late for shade. I met my cousin Emily and her husband, some friends from church and and their kids and my aunt Deborah there. We sat on the sunny side of the sidewalk and it was blistering hot. As we were driving there, the radio told me the heat index was 105 degrees. Oh surely not, not this morning, I thought. Not at 10:00 am, which is when the parade started.

He was right though. It felt like 105 degrees easy. Maybe even 110.

Soon after this shot Tess got a chance to move to the shady side of the street with my aunt. Lucky girl.

The parade had all the usual suspects. Neat old cars, tractors, fire trucks.

Ronald McDonald.

A lady with a canon.

And our personal favorite, our cousin on a tractor. It was the cutest thing in the parade, right next to his sister on a pony. They both made it on the evening news.

When it was over, we walked to the square where all the booths, crafts, and activities were set up. My cousin, Emily got her favorite thing of the year, lemonade.

She says it’s the best lemonade ever made. It sure is pretty. I tasted it and it does taste better than regular lemonade, but I’ll stick with Coke as my drink of choice.

I was tempted by the cotton candy, my personal favorite, but I usually over eat and it makes me sick. I knew it really would in this heat. So I resisted. But looking back at this picture sure makes me wish I had some right now.

I bought some things at the craft booths and I saw this lady with her unique tomato hat. She let me take her picture.

There were all kinds of tomato goodies to be had. People in Warren, Arkansas really have their tomato spirit!

You won’t be surprised to find out that I don’t eat tomatoes.

By this time I was expiring in the heat. I hauled my hot, whining children, pushing the stroller up hill back to my van, all without passing out, though I felt like I could have.

That night we went back for the concert. The Bellamy Brothers were there. I imagined the evening cooling down as the sun set, I was so very wrong. The heat lingered. We were wiping sweat from our faces at 9pm that night! I don’t think I’ve ever been so hot at night before.

When we got home, I cleaned the house some and edited pictures, by the time I was ready for bed, I was freezing. Someone had adjusted our air conditioning. I had to take a steaming hot bath just to restore my body temperature. It felt weird since just a few hours before, I didn’t think I’d ever be cool again.

I know that by next year, we’ll forget how hot we were and we’ll be ready to do it all again. In fact, at Sunday lunch everyone was talking about who they might have to sing next year, and Clark has been playing his Bellamy Brother’s cd ever since the concert.