Independence Day in Round Pond, Maine

This year was the 23rd Independence Day Parade in Round Pond. This is an anarchist event: there is no committee passing judgement on the themes or political correctness of the floats. Anybody can join the parade. Most years there are several with current event themes, usually a couple in bad taste (like last year's Brokeback Harbor float "...a hard sternman is good to find") and of course an annual appearance by the Tacky Tourist Lawnchair Drill Team.

This year's parade was pretty long, about 6000 people came to watch. There weren't any floats in outstanding bad taste this year, unless you consider the usual Bush/Cheney bashing floats in bad taste.

This Lobster is kind of like a Chinese dragon.

There is always some commentary on the folks in Washington.

The Tacky Tourists were off their form for the lawn chair drill but they were dressed to kill!

I'm not sure what this one is all about. The sign at the top reads "Discounts given for length of skirt, cleavage, etc."

Crystal, from the Bristol Diner, dispensing donut holes to the crowd. She throws like a girl but when she uses the tongs it's like jai alai!

Here is a view of part of the crowd. People were parked a mile and a half along our road. We saw license plates from Arizona, Colorado, Pennsylvania, Florida and many others from the lower 47.

After the parade there was the annual chicken barbeque with live music. This year it was a blues band, Beauty and the Beast, with our friend Pat Ginnaty on lead guitar.

The weather was perfect. We spent the afternoon listening to the band and conversing with friends we met at the parade. All in all a most satisfying 4th of July.