March of the Democrats

"I tell you, it's so good to see Democrats out marching in Ravalli County," the old gentleman said to us, after yesterday's parade. That's my "Proud to Be" button with an American Legion poppy.

We loved marching in the Corvallis, MT, Memorial Day Parade! There were vintage cars and bag pipers,  bikers,  costumed dogs, massive fire trucks and quirky floats galore. Main Street of this small dusty town was packed three deep, with children in front to collect the giveaways -- mostly candy, sometimes tiny American flags.

And of course, there were politicians. We walked behind the car of Clint Burson, Democrat who's running for County Commissioner in District 4 (a seat now occupied by right-wing Republican Jeff Burrows). Clint is a young Montanan, full of a love for the environment plus plenty of ideas for righting wrongs in recent Republican-dominated goings on in the county.  Vote for Clint! (And, St. Louis friends, he is a copy editor at the Lee-owned Ravalli Republic newspaper -- with full approval of his candidacy by his superiors. He may be out of a job, anyway, in the fall, since Lee apparently is moving its newspaper design desks to three centralized locations -- one of them is not Montana.)

Mark West (great name for a Montana candidate, eh?) is the Democrat running for County Commissioner in District 1, a seat now occupied by the right-wing Republican Ron Stoltz.

Mark, too, is a supporter of the forested, local environment and showed that in one of his two vintage trucks, full of young trees in the back and hanging baskets on the rear-view mirrors. Nice touch!

Another marcher, for Mark.

Nancy Schneider (D) brought a truck full of family members with signs to campaign for House District 86 seat occupied Ron Ehli (R).

Veteran marchers practiced...

Young cowboys huddled...

And local businesses touted their wares (cider, in this case, from Swanson's Mountain View Apple Orchards).

We were told that no horses, mules (elephants? -- large animals, in other words) would be allowed to befoul the parade this year. And yet...

...Some Republican managed to get poop (horse) on the streets. No surprise there, I guess!