Aberdeen Here I come

Well for those of you who don't know, I grew up in Aberdeen Idaho. I loved growing up there and this weekend I get to go back. We are going over for my 10 year class reunion. Everyone from Aberdeen knows that the weekend when most class reunions are held is the weekend of Aberdeen Days. Lucky for me this is the case for my reunion. There are cute little sidewalk sales and a fantastic, cold pancake breakfast at the park. For this breakfast you stand in line with a couple thousand people (yes that is more than the population of the town) ,while being seranaded to by the Old Time Fiddlers and then when you finally get up there the chamber of commerce and my cousin Heidi's grandpa (he's the Mayor) and grandma serve up pancakes, fried eggs, hashbrowns (courtesy of Simplot, the biggest town employer), sausage and pop. Yup, you read that right good old healthy, yummy soda. The girls who placed in Junior Miss the previous April get to serve the patrons the soda pop. This means that they get to be at the park at 6 in the morning and freeze in the shade in their shorts and hand out pops and sing songs about the sun coming out (at least thats what my friends and I did)! Finally the sun does come out to play and then everyone sits at the park and visits with long, lost friends, relatives and old aquantances for a couple of hours. After eating breakfast where the syrup is cold and the butter won't melt on the pancakes the kids run over to the play area and play on giant slides (at least I remember them as being giant) and try to climb a strange pole that has a big ball at the top that looks like a giant lollypop (it's very difficult unless you are my brothers or an experienced coconut tree climber). Then it is time to round everybody up and stake out a good spot on the parade route. Most people head on over to Main street where they sit in the shade of the drugstore awening or just line the sidewalks. You wait for what seems like forever until finally you here the parade coming. You always hear the parade coming before you see it because it is always lead by a police car and who ever is driving it does funky things with the siren to let everyone here that Aberdeen does actually have a police car with a siren and to signal that the parade has begun. This parade has a variety of wonderful homemade floats made by different business owners in the town. You will also see a few tractors, horses, bikes decorated with crepe paper and possibly some old cars. This is also where you get to see the high school cheerleaders cartwheeling down the road to the tune of whatever the marching band behind them is playing. For some this is the end of Aberdeen days (it usually was for my dad), But not for all. In the afternoon you can head over to the park for an excellent good old fashioned fish fry put on by the scout troop 151! And then you can finish off the night by going over to the high school auditorium to watch a fun melodrama with all of the booing, hissing and hooraying that anyone could ask for.

This is what our family is headed for this weekend. Hannah can hardly believe that we are actually going to eat breakfast at a park. I can't either. It's been a long time since I've been to Aberdeen days and I plan to enjoy every minute of it! I love you Aberdeen! You were a great place to grow up and I have many, many fond memories of that beautiful little town. You will forever hold a special place in my heart and after reading this post, apparently my stomach!