The Garden City Telegram
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Parading around
Published 6/8/2009 in Beef Empire Days-Entertainment
By SHAJIA AHMAD
The mini ponies embellished with pink ribbons and handfuls of free candy thrown from the back of flatbed trucks couldn't keep the kids away. Children of all ages scurried up and down Main Street Saturday during this year's 41st Beef Empire Days Parade.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Daniel Taylor waves to the crowd through holes in the side of a cattle trailer Saturday on Main Street. The trailer was part of an entry in the Black Hills Energy Beef Empire Days Parade from JC Trucking, Deerfield.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Members of the Finney County Sheriff's Office walk behind their float entry Saturday during the Black lHills Energy Beef Empire Days Parade on Main Street.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Kayden Atkinson, 7, passes the time by blowing bubbles Saturday morning while waiting for the Black Hills Energy Beef Empire Days Parade to begin while sitting along Main Street with his family.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Members of Garden City Gymnastics perform flips on their entry in Saturday's Black Hills Energy Beef Empire Days Parade.
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Brad Nading/Telegram — Area residents line Main Street Saturday morning to watch the annual Black Hills Energy Beef Empire Days Parade.
Blayton Dibble, 6, and his brothers Jance, 5, and Jaron, 4, dived for the Dum Dum lollipops, barely noticing the larger-than-life tractors and bullet rotors rolling by over their small heads.
It was the first Beef Empire Days parade for the trio visiting from Milan, Mo., their grandmother, Robbie Dibble, said.
"I took them to the carnival so far, and they're excited for the rodeo," she added.
Had they ever seen horses and cattle up close before?
"Yea, we live on a farm!" Blayton Dibble answered, peeling back his lollipop wrapper.
Organizers estimated that about 10,000 spectators came out to line the 10-block stretch in downtown Garden City to get a glimpse of the floats, bands, horses, motorcycles and politicians.
Several of the nearly 100 entries were ornamented in the red, white and blue spirit of this year's theme: "America's Legacy ... Beef."
The promenade opened with the Garden City veteran's color guard bearing American and Kansas flags, and the parade's grand marshal, lifetime Garden City resident Gene Heinman, who still farms in the area with his family.
Heinman, who waved to spectators from his vehicle, attended the first Beef Empire Days in 1968 and has never left Garden City, except for a stint in the Korean War, parade announcers Barbara Oringderff and Storm Dennison said over downtown's sound system.
Others, including city and county officials and Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., rode in the parade in the 90-degree weather.
The warm temperatures did not stop members of the Garden City Gymnastics from performing a few flips on the back of their flatbed semitrailer.
Amid the floats from where parade participants threw Tootsie Rolls and Smarties to the crowd, some of the four-footed, hoofed entries left behind their own surprise: The horses from the Dodge City Rodeo stopped mid-parade at the corner of Laurel and Main streets to take care of some business.
Clutching a fistful of candy, 2-year-old Piper Harris pointed at the spectacle.
"Look, daddy — poop," she said, eliciting a few laughs from her father, Grant Harris.
Black Hills Energy sponsored the parade.
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