List of parade participants bigger, but event remains small-town

NEWSOMES

The chimes on the Baptist church in the center of town were playing patriotic songs. "God Bless America." "The Battle Hymn of the Republic."

The Fourth of July 2009 was coming to a close. Hot dogs were on the grill. Cobs of sweet, white corn were bubbling in boiling water.

Grandpas walked around holding tow-headed grandchildren in their arms, and neighbors chatted with neighbors.

A July Fourth tradition started seven years ago with a parade of one man, one dog and a flag.

The parade this year had maybe 30 units. Tractors. ATVs. Vintage cars. Beat-up pickup trucks. Three horses. The number is uncertain. Nobody counts.

There were no high-stepping majorettes or bands. There were little children with batons. There were fire trucks, but no blaring sirens. Even the sounds of the horses' hooves clopping down Main Street spoke of small-town peace.

The sounds of hard candy, Tootsie Rolls and giant-sized Newsomes peanuts hitting the warm concrete sent children scurrying for the prizes.

The "big celebration" in this part of the world is in Sedley each year. That's just down the road, said Nancy Bunn, who lives at the head of Main, where the parade turns around. It goes back. The same way.

Her son, Blair, is credited with creating the Newsomes' tradition. He was the one man with the dog and a very large American flag.

"I heard the commotion, and I went running outside," Nancy recalled. "I said, 'Blair, what are you doing?' He said he was having a Fourth of July parade."

The following Fourth, he tried again. That year, he convinced his wife, Jenny, to join him on his big John Deere, and the Bunn family handed out cantaloupes to their neighbors who were at home.

Or, was it watermelon? Makes no difference. It built interest in the parade.

The Ruritans wanted to be a part of the Newsomes celebration.

"The parade started with two tractors riding through Newsomes," Mayor Harvey Porter said as he passed out corn on the cob. "Blair just kept riding up and down Main Street."

Soon, Shiloh Grass, a local bluegrass band, joined the party. They usually play until 8 or 9 in the evening, said Lynda Updike, a local farmer who was at the community house with her whole family.

Sometime back, the float of the old men started as a tradition. Now they have it every year. When somebody asked one of them once what they were in the parade for, the answer was clear:

"We have absolutely no purpose," the man said, as he climbed aboard the float to claim his seat.

The Fourth of July is over for another year in Newsomes.

Let the second half of summer begin.

Linda McNatt, 222-5561,

linda.mcnatt@pilotonline.com