mooooooo

Every June, Brattleboro puts on a homegrown parade in honor of local agriculture – the world-famous Strolling of the Heifers. This year, the blessed day dawned with thunder and lightning, but by the time the parade started at 10 am, it was hot and sunny.

Greetings from the sidewalk! We were organized this year: we brought our new foldable chairs. All I had with me was my shiny new cellphone, so my apologies in advance for the less-than-ideal picture quality.

We got a spot with a good view of one of my favorite trees.

First up: Senator Bernard Sanders. 

Draft horses. 

The first heifer: a Holstein. We’re famous for Holsteins around here. They’re big milk producers and the Holstein Association is headquartered in Brattleboro.

A pair of unusual white cows.

But now, the reason I’m here: the Jersey Heifers! These girls are so cute it’s unbelievable. Most of them were kind of nervous with all the people and cow bells (for sale, five bucks), so they were drooling.

I’m in l-o-o-o-o-o-o-ve…

oh! oh! oh! so cute!

Don’t you want to take her home?

OK, now for some other kind of heifer…

These guys are doing drills and walking in circles.

OOOH, some kind of heirloom breed.

There followed LOTS MORE COWS, along with banners for the local 4H, Future Farmers of America, individual farms from both Vermont and right over the river in New Hampshire… I’m skipping a ton of stuff here….

Occasionally, other types of livestock snuck into the lineup. Here’s the long eared ass rescue association’s mascot…(I used the phone’s zoom feature, so you can read the sign, but wow, it sure blurs things – sorry!)

A tiny pony, dressed like a Holstein. Hah hah!

After the livestock comes the pooper scooper crew. Last year they were dressed as flies. This year’s theme was fruits and veggies.

 

That’s one of the Dairy Fairies, in pink.

And now, for the utterly random part of the parade: various local schools and daycare centers, some with themes, some without. This year, the Guilford Central School illustrated…

…the Forces of Nature. Not bad. About four years ago, they were “Life Cycles of the Frog” – that was a good year.

Sometimes we stood and cheered, and
sometimes we enjoyed our chairs. Hello, sweetie!

 

The Asian Cultural Center had a long dragon, of which this is the head.

Last night’s band was back. That’s our neighbor, Julian, in the red pants. 

And, leading the Vermont Theatre Company, we have Brattleboro’s famous cross-dressing Alfred Hughes. He used to lead the whole parade, but the organizers got mad at him. It seems that a black man in a stunning sequined ballgown is fully capable of stealing the show. They seem to have arrived at a compromise this year.

There followed LOTS more randomness. At one point, a Girl Scout troop went by. I remember being in a parade as a girl scout. I seem to recall we practiced marching in formation. This is Vermont, though – we do things the opposite of what you would expect. If you are SUPPOSED to be in formation, forget about it. Just mill around. On the other hand…

The Brattleboro Food Coop does precision drilling
with shopping carts.

 

The obligatory dragon made out of used shopping bags. Which seems odd, since the Coop doesn’t even offer plastic bags anymore. No matter. Every parade needs a few dragons.

Whew! After that we spent some time at the whole madhouse of vendors and food giveaways, and then came home to chill out.