The Great 4th of July Tractor Parade!

It is a tradition in Stormstown, PA, to have a tractor parade on the Saturday morning before the 4th of July. I'm not sure how long they've been doing it, but it's become a treasured event in our community. The farmers who work the fields turn their tractors to the streets for our entertainment. 

They start at the community building around 10 a.m., and it's usually 10:30 or so by the time they get to this street. This is the hill that I walk or ride my bike up to the Barrens to visit my favorite pond. So I am here quite often, as you all well know. It's fun to watch and hear the unexpected roar as big machines rumble through these streets.

The little kids - well, and all the rest of us, too! - get very excited when we hear them coming. We set our chairs up along the road and we chat with our neighbors and somebody usually comes around distributing flags before the main event. So we wave our flags madly, and we smile, and sometimes we cheer.

These are our neighbors, and some of them are quite old, as are some of their machines. They bring their kids along, and it becomes a family-oriented event. These are the farm families that are the salt of the earth. The whole thing has a very old-fashioned, wholesome feel.

I am a photographer. It is who and what I am now. Maybe what I always was. And so I take my camera along, and my monopod, and my chair, and I sit or stand at the corner of Shanelly and Lutz, and I take pictures of every single tractor, every person I see. I post the photos to our neighborhood network, and they get lots of love from an appreciative community. I feel this is a way I can contribute, a little something I can give back.

I moved to this community 21 years ago, and it is now the place I have lived longest of anywhere. I hope you can tell from my pictures and my postings that I love it here. I am proud of these people and I think there is no more beautiful place to live than this.

Lift your flag and wave it madly!

Welcome to my hometown.

My soundtrack song is Bruce Springsteen, with My Hometown.