Today was Oldsmar Days. The City of Oldsmar is having its annual city celebration this weekend. The event celebrates the founding of the town by R.E. Olds the founder of the town and the inventor of the Oldsmobile and the REO automobiles. The history of the town and background on how R.E. Olds was involved is interesting. Here is a link to more information:
The highlight of today was the parade with the usual collection of politicians sitting on the back of convertibles throwing out candy with their outriders walking alongside handing out campaign literature and assorted trinkets. There were also civic groups, organizations, businesses and public safety agencies with various floats, mostly homemade. All were throwing beads, candy and other assorted things. The highlight of the parade however was the large number of vintage Oldsmobiles in the parade from the first one in 1906 to the last of them in the 1990's. There are several Oldsmobile clubs in the region and there were probably at least 20 -40 cars here today. All were beaautifully restored, chaparoned by "olds guys", affectionally known as "lug nuts" by the fraternity of antique car buffs.
We arrived at the main city park on the bay before the parade started and walked around a little before finding a spot in the shade before the parade started. The crowd was not large but family oriented and a very nice "small town" event. The parade lasted about an hour and a few of the floats and cars even came around again at the back of the parade.
After the parade we walked through the grounds in the park which featured a full service carnival with the typical games, rides and food booths. Another section was a number of booths selling crafts and things and organizational booths touting their various services. There was also a food court and continious live rock music being played by what appeared to be local bands.
We had a great lunch from the BBQ booth in the food court, walked around the area where the antique Oldsmobiles were displayed, then had ice cream for dessert while listening to a featured local band (The Homies) playing mostly rock cover songs as well as some of their own music (we think). They were good and there was a good crowd listening to them as it appears they have a pretty good local following.
The weather was perfect - 78 degrees, sunny and no wind. We were back in the RV about 4:00 pm after a very enjoyable day.
Baseball tomorrow, our next-to-last game.
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment