Granbury, Texas 4th of July

GRANBURY 4TH OF JULY PARADE

Granbury, Texas may be the most scenic of the many Texas county seats famous for their courthouse squares. The town puts on good festivals, such as General Granbury's Birthday, and the one we're seeing here, the 4th of July. The courthouse square is wired for sound. Two very good announcers add color commentary to the passing parade. The parade was scheduled to begin at 10AM, but ran a half hour late. A flyover of old prop planes was followed by a fire truck brigade with sirens blaring and then the actual start of the parade with an interesting rendition of the Pledge of Allegiance.

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Here we see the the throngs of cars and walkers making their way to the courthouse square.

The color guard in front of the reviewing stand, after the fly-over and after the fire truck brigade, this marks the start of the parade, with the Pledge of Allegiance and the singing of the Star Spangled Banner. For some reason as the Pledge was loudly spoken by the assembled thousands, when they came to the phrase 'one nation under God', the words suddenly seemed to be shouted.

Apparently this parade is well known for the vast amount of candy thrown to the spectators. Kids came prepared with bags, as if it were Halloween. Some of the passing floats passed out bags to kids so they could hold all their candy. At times it seemed as if you were being bombarded with flying candy.

General Granbury appears at any event in Granbury and the 4th of July parade was no exception. No matter how hot it is he wears his woolen Confederate uniform. This day the heat was not an issue with clouds and wind keeping the temperature very pleasant for the most part.

In Texas, for the 4th of July, even though school is out, high school bands show up for a parade, and cheerleaders, and even the football team. Here we see the Granbury High School band, out of uniform, in summer casual attire suitable for the 4th of July.

An Army float with what looked like Dallas Cowboy Cheerleaders flanking it. Spectators saluted as the float passed by.

A pair of oxen pulling a wagon. Note the faces on the oxen.

This herd of Longhorns caused some screaming and moving away from the curb at this point in the parade.

It is not known what offense these Belles of the South may have committed which had them being interrogated by this officer as they were peacefully marching their way through the parade.

Big flags on floats seemed to be a popular motif for the day.

The Republicans rolled through the parade in this big steamboat with elephants on board in front.

A couple floats had the county courthouse on board. Here you see the float version and the real thing behind it.

Never has a parade been witnessed by these eyes which had more roller bladers and skateboarders in it.

As the parade moved along the skateboarders and skaters would do tricks. Here we see a skateboarder jumping over three fellow boarders laying on the road.

Here we see the new Texas state mandated outdoor public event air-conditioning in action. Blowing cold air on the sun-sweltered spectators.

The blast of cold air was quite refreshing to those sitting in the Eyes on Texas reviewing stand.

The Fort Worth swim team.

Granbury's Mothers of Multiples. Twins and triplets on parade.

A couple more multiples.

Amazing feats of gymnastics as this troupe marched along. Here landing on this little boy's hat.

Now off the hat and standing on someone's hand.

Another of the flag floats. Note the angry sky. Rain did not drop until the very end of the parade.

Somewhere in this mess of red, white and blue there sits a little girl.

Several floats had bands on board, singing as they floated along.

This escapee from the Magic Kingdom sang "It's a Small World" as it moved along. It is not known if Disneyland approves of this.

Cheerleaders stopped in front of the Eyes on Texas reviewing stand to yell a cheer.

You can't have a parade in Texas without Shriners in little cars.

This use of balloons would have been a good thing at the recent North Texas Balloon Classic in Midlothian.

A real tall Uncle Sam with some little cowboys and cowgirls walking with him.

Uncle Sam gets into flag waving mode as the music gets louder.

More of Uncle Sam and his group of little followers.

The Granbury High School football team followed by their Pirate mascot.

The Pirate looms over the Granbury Courthouse.

Kids poised to rush for some more candy being thrown by these roller bladers.

More roller bladers.

As this group of bikers passed the reviewing stand the announcer said that somewhere in the crowd there was someone who was going to be surprised at seeing them, as kids and grandkids had come from all over to surprise their mom and grandma on the 4th of July in Granbury. Here we see the mom/grandma, Norma, as she realizes it is her kids and grandkids on motorcycles. The parade stopped for a bit while a lot of hugging took place.

Norma's kids and grandkids all had t-shirts which said "Norma's Gang" on the back.

That ends 4th of July in Granbury, Texas.

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