Small town parade

We went out before lunch walking to a nearby store and found the intersection of Georgia & University blocked off for a parade in honor of 50 years of the Wheaton Rescue Squad and the 83rd Annual Convention and Parade of the Montgomery County Volunteer Fire and Rescue Association. It included a line of firetrucks and ambulances several blocks long, pompom girls, "cowboys" on horseback--one with a long horn steer--and endless sirens. Baffling, deafening, and surprisingly moving as an assertion of a real community tradition.