River of Light

Sheila and I started our weekend (last weekend) by doing some Christmas shopping on Saturday morning.  Then we headed to lunch at The Longhorn restaurant.  We sat at the bar, had a few drinks and appetizers, and then ate lunch while we watched a Florida Gators basketball game.  It was a nice morning and afternoon!  We headed back to Waterbury in mid-afternoon because Lukey and Kenzie were marching in a parade after dark.  

This parade was Waterbury's 10th annual "River of Light" parade.  The parade started 10 years ago as a one-time art project for the local primary school.  The community loved the idea so, over the years, this parade of light has grown and become a large annual community event.  As a matter of fact, we overheard surprised and excited tourists who were staying in Waterbury express their delight at learning of this rather unusual annual community event so I'd say this is a successful tourist event as well as a community event.

For the event this year, snow was silently falling from the sky.  It was a chilly 21° but it actually seemed a bit warmer.  A bunch of us gathered on Main Street at the end of Stowe Street waiting for the parade to venture over the railroad bridge...

Norwich University cadets helped to keep the streets clear for the parade.  The parade was led by a State Trooper...  in the photo below, the Trooper's headlights were still hidden by the railroad bridge but the light bounced upward off the roadway and bridge, illuminating the falling snow...

Each of the kids had a lantern that they made in art class.  These lanterns were illuminated by battery-operated lights placed inside each lantern.  Some lanterns were small, some were large...

The Crossett Brook Middle School's junk band and drum line kept a nice beat throughout the parade route...  

The parade led everyone to a nearby ball field where the Waterbury Recreation Department had prepared bonfires and Harwood High School volunteers handed out free hot chocolate...  

Just beyond the bonfires, Fire Performers put on a street-performer-type fire show.  The crowd was deep watching this performance.  I managed to step up on a pile of snow at the back of the crowd and held the camera over my head to get this first shot...

I eventually got permission to wander to the opposite side of the performance, at a safe distance, to shoot more photos.  I was now shooting photos on a knee in my jeans in the deep snow and knew I would be soaked before long.  The wind was beginning to get a bit gusty at this point...  you can see the blowing streaks of snow in my photos...

At this point in the show, I was beginning to shiver.  My fingers were so frozen that I couldn't operate any of the buttons on my camera.  My camera was soaked.  And, my pants were wet from kneeling in the snow....

I had been crouched in the snow on one knee shooting photos with Lukey sitting next to me for quite a while now and more resembled a snowman than a "Papa with a camera".  My pants were soaked from being in the snow and I was chilled to the bone so it was time to call it a night.  

It was a really nice night though and I think I somehow managed to capture some decent photos!