Hudson 175

The little town of Hudson, Illinois is celebrating the 175th year of its founding, and I was there!

I love a parade!

Families sat by the side of the road to receive candy tossed from people walking and others riding on various vehicles, including tractors, tractor-pulled wagons, mule-drawn wagons, fire trucks, emergency vehicles, police cars, old cars, and two gigantic tubular trucks with hoses for septic removal followed by a walking skunk!

A large winking Dalmatian waved from a firetruck.

I shook hands with various local politicians, and one was being driven by a retired judge I swim with. (Small lap swimming world!)

Swing dancing by the Infamous Backsteppers! A bagpipe band, the Prairie Thistle, in kilts and knee socks! An elephant! (Not a live one, a Republican one.)  Boy scouts, Cub scouts, and 4-H'ers!

What a thrill.  And residents 90 and up were driven by in classic cars, so we got to wave to our neighbor Gus Ziebarth, local farmer, who is 94!

There were horses and ponies in glitter shoes. They pooped in the road!

Plus, Abraham and Mary Todd Lincoln waved to us from their horse-drawn carriage.

I met a descendant of Dr. Silas Hubbard, who had donated oldtime medical instruments to the library, along with some medications made from herb, lead, and ergot in little tubes, the kind of thing that might have exacerbated President Lincoln's melancholy...so I hope he gave them a good talking to after the parade.

I will head back this afternoon to see my mom in the cemetery. She'll be alive there, playing the role of Juliana Read Hubbard, wife of Dr. Hubbard, in the Hudson 175 Cemetery Walk.

These Hubbards are indeed related to Elbert Hubbard of A Message to Garcia and the Roycroft Press.

Instead of resting in between these historic events, I went to the Sugar Creek Arts Festival in beautiful Uptown Normal, and it's a beautiful hot, sunny, lovely day for that, too.  The arts festival continues tomorrow.  More info here.

So...so far I haven't been much of a slattern on this Slattern Day in the blog! I'll try to make up for it later, lounging in the back yard.