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It’s dark, and you can hear nothing but the crickets.  Labor Day week end celebration in Bradford is over.  And what a weekend celebration it was! 
Something new was tried this year with movies in the park after dark on Friday night, the official start to the holiday weekend.
Saturday was a day full of Christian music at the 14th Gospel Fest held in Elsie Drawyer Hodges Park.  The Word has spread and by evening, the park was chock full of lawn chairs as the music just got better and better.  Fine weather didn’t hurt any, either.

Meanwhile, not back at the ranch, but down at the grade school, more evening drama as the Beta’s presented a smaller slice of Hollywood glamour with the Little Miss Bradford Contest.  A confidence building beauty pageant to wet small feet, as every contestant is a winner.  A nice touch, Betas…..
Sunday started with food at the Firehouse with Bradford’s own Calendar worthy firemen using their fires to cook pancakes and sausage, and that evening the Bradford Legionnaires hosted their biggest fish fry of the year.  Nothing wrong with an old military calendar, either……..
Sunday was well planned.  In between eating engagements, you could spend the day admiring the highly successful car show that took over down town Bradford.  Not a speck of dust anywhere on these shining beauties.  And if it wasn’t enough just looking at the cars, a second event of watching the face of an old car buff glow or wipe a tear was there for the taking, too.
Night ended with a street dance, not a rain dance, for the weather was beautiful all weekend long in spite of the dire predictions of the weather bureau.  Wonder if that had anything to do with the band, Zero Gravity.
“Pride in Our Past, Hope in Our Future” was the theme of the 2009 Bradford Labor Day Parade, the biggest parade in the county, both in length and parade entries and in the crowd.  There’s Pride in that.
Five Legion marching Color Guards, fire trucks from four different units, two politicians……I think that’s probably about the right proportion there…..and convertible after convertible with the beautiful young queens from our small county.  Only thing I could see that was missing from a properly turned out parade was the clowns.  The days of old when the Shriners graced our little parade are nothing but a memory, although they still hang in there with a couple of entries. 
Once again we were honored to have a band.  Jeeze Louise, you can’t have a parade without a band, can you?  Thanks to local boy Chris Piper who brought his big city lads and lasses from Peoria Heights to give us the music that we missed for a few years.  A Big Thank You.
Many class reunions – Classes of ’59, ’68, ’69, ’70 and the Blackhawk Conference football Champions of 1964 swelled the population as many family reunions benefited in alumni traveling home.  The 50 year alumni class and the Champs paraded on decorated floats, or a hay rack as one former team captain phrased it, fulfilling still more Price in Our Past.  Perhaps there’s a lot of hope for the future on those floats as well…
A small town celebration parade can’t be complete without old tractors, more Pride in Our Past.  The Boy Scouts had two entries….one float just for our two Eagle Scouts, Hope in our Future. 
Best entry slogan was from a Pork Producer – Providing two things:  #1.  Pork  The other is #2
As always, the horses were left with the honor to close the parade, wisely bringing up the rear.
And then the time for visiting, which is the kind way to put standing in a very long line to patronize the Rescue Squad for their always delicious pork sandwiches.
As if the parade wasn’t kiddie time, it really started after mom and dad had their pork chops.  New this year was a Watermelon eating (or spitting?) contest, the 7th annual Frog Jump Contest…….look out Calaveras County…….. the ever popular kiddie tractor pull and the kiddie water fights. 
It’s good to be a kid, regardless of your age.
So……summer is over.  It’s officially over after Labor Day, right?
Thank you Bradford, for hosting a grand and final summer party, giving us Pride in Our Past and Hope in our Future.