On Saturday, Aidan, Sean and I went into Pinckney to watch the St. Patrick's Day festivities. Pinckney, our new hometown, is about two miles north of us. It is a friendly little country town that reminds me of the town in southern Ohio where I grew up. Pinckney has about 2,400 residents which makes it just a little bigger than McArthur.

The heart of Pinckney is a little downtown district that is barely two blocks long. The storefronts face a little park that forms the central town square. It has several nice restaurants, a bakery, a hardware store, a quilting shop, a public library, a pilates studio, a pharmacy, a grocery store, a couple of gas stations and a car wash. They even have a McDonald's and a Wendy's!

On this particular Saturday, the residents of the town and the surrounding countryside were out in force for the annual St. Patrick's Day Parade. The festivities were kicked off with some traditional Irish step dancing by four local girls at the park pavilion. Afterwards, there was a bed race down Main Street.

The main event was the parade. We loaded ourselves down with some hotdogs from a street vendor and some souvenirs from table set up by an Irish gifts shop from a nearby town. We sat on the curb and watched the entrants go by which included the local 4-H club on horseback, the girl scout troop, the 4th grade class of the town's Catholic school, the local Rolling Thunder motorcycle club, representatives from the Michigan National Guard in their Humvee (Aidan liked that), a few politicians, a number of veteran's groups, the Michigan Military Mom's and the town firetruck.

For me, the highlight of the parade was the Scottish Pipe Band from Flint. They were smartly dressed in their kilts and military uniforms complete with swords and bagpipes. They made an impressive sound as they came down the little street with bagpipes blaring.

Once it was over we made our way back to our van and home again to return to our farm work. It felt nice to get out for a bit and enjoy the small-town atmosphere. It reminded me that I have spent too much of my life leading an anonymous existence in large towns and cities. I look forward to getting to know some of these people better once our children transfer into the local schools next fall.