Huron Expositor, 2007-12-05, Page 101
Page 10 The Huron Expositor • December 5, 2007
News
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Festive Sawmill parade draws more people than ever
Susan Hundertmark
With 21 floats and spectators lin-
ing roads that are usually empty,
the Sawmill Road Christmas farm
machinery parade gets bigger and
better every year, says organizer
Irma Pryce.
"It was wonderful. Every year, it
goes up by a couple of floats. I think
there were 17 or 18 last year," she
says.
The farm machinery parade
began in' 1999 as a way to share the
Christmas spirit between neigh-
bours in McKillop Township.
The parade route starts at the
Pryce farm on Sawmill Road, trav-
els east to Beechwood Road, goes
down Hullett-McKillop to Hensall
Road and back to Sawmill Road,
returning to the Pryces'.
Pryce says she gets calls from all
over southwestern Ontario asking
for directions to the parade each
year. This year, a group home from
Exeter and spectators from
Lucknow, Clifford and Mitchell
called for directions.
As well, local residents have rela-
tives from Toronto and Hamilton
who travel to the area every year to,
watch the parade.
This year, for the first time, the
parade opened
up to welcome
floats from out-
side the neigh-
bourhood and
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one float from
Wingham joined
the parade.
Pryce says
that with 20 sets
of lights used
just to decorate
the family trac-
tor and another
20 sets to deco-
rate the wagon
pulled behind,
joining the
parade is a big
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Goderich
Clinton
Exeter
Seaforth
Wingham
ONTARIOa
Susan
Hundertmark
photo
Kevin Murray
of RR 4 Walton,
drives a decorated
John Deere tractor
in the Sawmill
Road parade
Saturday.
commitment.
"It takes four
of us to decorate
the wagon. You
have to staple
every light into
place. It's all
time-consuming
but you have to
make it fun," she
says.
Despite all
the work
involved in deco-
rating the farm
machinery in the
parade, Pryce
says having a lot
spectators
makes it all
wDrthwhile.
"They honk
their horns and
flash their lights.
It's better if peo-
ple don't have
their lights on,
though, so our
lights show more
- the dark makes
it that much
more colourful,"
she says.
She says 4u -he
number of spec-
tators rose dra-
matically this
year.
"I've never
seen so many
vehicles on our
road and there
were cars parked
along the whole
route this time,"
she says.
"It's great
that they're there
because the lights are our way of
saying Merry Christmas to the
neighbourhood," says Pryce.