11.25.06
A North Country Town’s Christmas Parade
Christmas was in the air on November 23, 2006 when the little town of Littleton, New Hampshire celebrated the beginning of the holiday season with a downtown parade. A marching band, bedecked in red, looked and sounded very festive. Also marching was a junior ROTC unit, a fine looking group of young people in uniform, standing straight and looking very professional.
A float carried “Mary and the baby Jesus, and Joseph,” accompanied by a crowd of other youngsters and “shepherds.”
The brass band above did a great job and seemed to be comprised of the senior crowd.
The “Grinch,” probably waiting to steal Christmas again, could be seen on the back of the neatest little red car I’ve ever seen in my life. It looked like a miniature dune buggy, and he was able to stand upright on the back of it.
Several politicians were walking the route, accompanied by vehicles, and they warmly greeted the crowd.
Another lady was walking along with bags of candy and every time she saw children, she reached in her bag and threw a handful of candies their way.
The parade was over in a flash but it had been adequate to draw a crowd downtown. Afterwards, people were seen entering stores and restaurants, and going to a craft fair at a downtown church. Everyone appeared to be in good spirits.
We often eat at the Oasis Restaurant, whenever we are in town. However, on this particular day, we were not in the mood for Italian food. We decided to try “Topic of the Town.” We found the food there to be excellent and priced right.
After that, we stopped by the Grist Mill to pick up some muffin mix and a bag of Balsam. Jim took some great pictures of the Amonoosuc River behind the mill, looking both upstream and downstream, from a covered bridge that has a walkway and is just for people.
The day warmed up, and as we got into the car to leave, I noticed some Box Elder “bugs” on the side of a concrete wall, in the sun. They were grouped together closely, and I’d never seen so many altogether like that. Luckily, those were the only “bugs” on our day trip.
Small town life in New Hampshire is great. I am not sure what the population of Littleton is. It is certainly a smaller area than say, Portsmouth, Manchester, Concord, Nashua, or Keene.
We like the flavor of the north country. Littleton’s downtown area has some very upscale shopping such as a superb cooking store, a terrific bookstore, and many other little specialty shops.
Thought you might enjoy the photos.
Pat and Jim
