MilK River Days In Hinsdale, USA

I always look forward to the Fourth of July festivities in Hinsdale. It's a day that can be enjoyed by young and old alike. The parade is one of the better small town parades one can find anywhere, and it had more than 50 entries this year.

It's sometime a little disappointing when there is a lack of horses in any Western parade, but Tom and Joy See always take care of that when they bring their team of Fjord horses and stylish carriage to town.

The Hinsdale FFA won the grand prize for all floats with a great one this year. Lots of work went into their float. It was quite "refreshing" when I got pelted by water balloons thrown from their float, considering it was a hot day. Just remember boys ... paybacks can sometime come when you least expect it. I've had 50 years or more experience than you have to think up retaliatory things. Watch your backs!

There was great music for the late night street dance "behind the fence" at Stoughie's on the third after the rodeo, and the band stayed and played more good stuff the next day during the street bowling, horse shoe tournament, bowling ball cannon shoot, community picnic and pie auction.

It's always fun for me to see the young college age kids come home for the celebration – the boys sporting newly acquired face hair and girlfriends, and the girls with new tattoos and facial piercing jewelry not allowed while they were living at home.

One can renew old friendships and see old acquaintances long forgotten. Start Facebook communications between old schoolmates and the occasional teacher from the past. There are a lot of "Do you remember when we ..." And my favorite, "After all the things we did when we were kids, I'm surprised either one of us survived childhood!!"

And the finale, of course, is always the fireworks display. This year more than $5,000 went up in smoke, beautifully.

And thus ended another Fourth of July celebration in beautiful downtown Hinsdale, Montana, USA.

That's it for now folks. Thanks for listening