Tuesday, August 24, 2010

Father uses parade car pictures to disguise doting on his son during the Parkville Days Riverfest

Warning: there will be some personal, non-car-related information snuck into certain portions of this article. Reader discretion is advised.

Good little Parkville residents that we are, we dutifully attended the 42nd-Annual Parkville Days Riverfest in English Landing Park over the weekend. Parkville must be doing something right with this event, because there are so many people that ascend on the little historic downtown area that it almost makes you want to be someplace else.

For the last couple of years, our family has participated in most of the parades in town, a tradition we continued Saturday. The reason is that our son, the legendary BHo, earned his place among the entries by winning the Little Mr. Parkville pageant.

He actually won it three years ago, then we took a year off. He wasn't happy that he didn't get to be in the parades the next year, so we re-entered the competition as per his request, and his big eyelashes allowed him to retake the throne and catch a ride in a really nice Cavalier Convertible with Little Miss. Parkville and Miss. Kansas Teen. Lucky little bugger ...

A good deal of the participants in this parade are typically politicians. I guess it's good that they get their faces out there, but they really aren't that much fun to watch. On the other hand, there's an interesting car or two along the way. Thank goodness, because it wouldn't have seemed as natural for me to brag on my handsome, personable son on this car-themed blog if they weren't there.

The Ararat Shriners had the best group of cars in the bunch, with a few Corvettes (including a nice '61), a couple of hot rods, and an original-looking '68 Malibu. They also had some tiny Model T's and a group of Fez-wearing Segway operators. The Shriners are the leaders in oddball miniature personal transportation devices.

I was supposed to ride with BHo in the Cavalier and make sure the kids didn't fall off the top boot onto the road, but that Miss. Teen took that spot instead, so I rode in front seat of a nice brown '73 Eldorado convertible with big whitewalls accompanied by Maxine McKeon (the lady who has coordinated the pageant for a cool 35-years) and the incumbent Mr. (sans the "Little") Parkville.

The last time I rode in a '73 Eldorado convertible was shortly after I was born, when my dad threw me on the backseat and drove from Nebraska to Colorado. He still recounts how tiny I looked curled up in a ball and sleeping on that "big red leather seat."

As a side note, this wasn't the only '73 Eldo in the parade.  There was also a nice red one.

After the parade, I ran over to Riverside to check out the Midwest Camaro Fest show, then it was back to Parkville where BHo entered the 2010 contest not to be Little Mr. Parkville, but up in age class to regular Mr. Parkville. And even though this has nothing to do with cars, I'm happy to report that he was again crowned the winner, proving that if you marry the right woman, you don't have to look like Tom Cruise to spawn a handsome kid.

Seriously, we're proud of BHo, and honored that he was chosen to represent his hometown for another year. Way to go, kid!

Oh, and here are some car pictures--can't forget the car pictures.



3 comments:

  1. Hey, just who are you married too? I didn't have anything to do with his good looks! Must take after Dad. :-)

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  2. So, just how did he get the nickname BHo anyway? I've never heard that story and I bet it has to do with cars!

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  3. Well, it means "Baby Hover." There's a whole story that goes with it. Maria said she'll tell you when you guys go to dinner!

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