Small town America. I love it. One thing that many small towns share is the Summer Festival. Around here there are several standards....The Shiloh Ox-Roast, The Bucyrus Bratwurst Festival, The Marion Popcorn Festival. Here in my home town of Shelby, it's Bicycle Days.
Shelby used to the be quite the little manufacturing town, making everything from bubble gum (they say we made it first) to light bulbs (they say we made the longest burning bulb ever) to seamless steel tubing (Another first). And of course, bicycles.
I'm told that Shelby bicycles these days are a coveted collector's item. And they're kind of cool looking. Check out the Donald Duck bike....
But, if you can't own a Shelby bike yourself, you may be able to catch a glimpse of one at Bicycle Days. This is always the weekend after the 4th of July. Usually you'll see a lot of people exodusing out of Shelby on the 4th to catch fireworks in another town, then the next weekend we all congregate on our football field and enjoy them with our townspeople...plus folks from all the other towns that we descended on the week before!
They take one of the streets and set up food booths...you know, the greasy, sugary, salty, no-health-value-whatsoever-for-you food types that you find in every small town festival. Funnel Cakes...grilled brats, steaks, burgers...fried everything you can imagine...frozen bananas...ribbon fries....shew, I gained five pounds just typing that!
And there are all kinds of activities...basketball shoot-outs, "Big ball" softball tournaments, live bands, square dancers, cornhole tournaments, a 5k run, a cruise-in, a parade, "Real Guitar Hero" competition, bicycle and big wheel races.
Something for everyone...
Come on now....how could anyone not love such a spectacle?!
More to come tomorrow....
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