Flashback to 1983

The arrival of the Lehi Roundup Rodeo has made me wax nostalgic and after reading Josh and Kellie's blog (see side bar) I have been inspired to post about Rodeo Days of the past.  This was the year that I was the first attendant to the Rodeo Day's prince and princess.  Here are the newspaper clippings (there were several other candidates but the scanner wouldn't grab them all.  I am telling you this because it is much more prestigious to take second when there are more candidates involved in the process):

Obviously my spelling needs some work, and we are grateful that firemen now use hoses and not hoes, but this little entry helped me gain access to the coveted royalty parade train.  It was just too bad that I was not in the lead car.  My fellow "prince" was Brandan Worthen and we got to ride directly behind the esteemed Prince Josh McCarrell and Princess Nichole Fox.   I will say that I looked ravishing in a floor length white gown with all the available lace trim that could be found at the time.  I shudder to think, however, that I was also wearing brown clogs.  Oh, the horror of not being dressed down to my shoes.   What a social faux pas.  Why my mom didn't buy me matching shoes will be forever beyond me.  I am just grateful to know that the shoes never made a showing because of the length of my gown.  On a side note it is interesting to observe that not even my baptism dress was white, but you can bet I was the best dressed girl in the parade.  Ask anybody. Oh, except for the shoes and we will never mention them again.

My mom made quite a name for herself in the local parading community and managed to win the sweepstakes award nearly every year in the miniature parade, and even went on to the Days of '47 parade in Salt Lake City.  The Lehi parade is quite possibly the best in the country, I dare anyone to refute this, and sets the tone for the other parades to follow.  Sadly, some fall quite short.  Where most parades have pick-up trucks full of cheerleaders and the occasional band, Lehi actually requires floats, go figure, and each ward has the opportunity to compete for all the marbles, or in this case the prize ribbon.  I can honestly say I have no remembrance of this float but I do remember many others.  I'm the little one with the parasol.  I defy Lehi to ever do away with this portion of the parade, because it truly is the best part.  I love the floats, the themes,  and the creativity they produce.  I will let you in on a little secret, and that is the fact that those pom-pom's do not make themselves.  There is some serious, time intensive labor that goes into each of these pieces of art and I was happy to make an appearance on several of them.
So, now that I have inspired each of you to make the trek over to Lehi you should know that the parade starts at 6 o'clock tonight and you won't be sorry.  At least I hope you won't.

This just in:  My dad wants me to give credit where credit is due.  So, in an effort to appease him I will rewrite a portion of my post.  Here goes:  "I will let you in on a little secret, and that is the fact that those pom-pom's do not make themselves.  My dad made 99.9% of those damn things, and he did a fantastic job of it." (At this point you may continue on with the previous post).  Thank you.