One of my favorite activities is “people watching”. Perhaps that’s why I enjoy Heritage Day so much. It’s not only a celebration of our town’s history and survival, but one of the only times during the year when everyone has an opportunity to just “visit”. People who haven’t seen each other in weeks or months or even years catch up on the news of children and grandchildren. They compare aches and pains. They talk about classmates missing and “passed on”. They reminisce about the old days when Caddo was bigger and livelier.
Heritage Day is also an opportunity to show off a bit. Those of us who have been working on little improvements here and there enjoy the comments of others, especially those who have been away for a while. It’s nice to hear things like “the flowers are so pretty”, or “I love that new bulletin board”. This year we also had a wonderful new bandstand to show off. The CCA did a wonderful job of putting together a “Twenties” theme.
There was plenty of entertainment for the day. Raini Welch started us off with one of the best renditions of the National Anthem I have ever heard. Gave me chills! We had a great parade, lots of singing, and games for the children. Several adults and children dressed in flapper costumes. We crowned a new Miss Caddo and a “Little Mister” and “Little Miss”. And a crowd favorite was the Pretty Baby Contest. There were drawings for a “Pig in a Blanket” (ham and quilt) and for a $100 bill. The pie contest and auction got a lot of attention, and I have a $10 chocolate pie in my refrigerator that my husband just couldn’t resist!
Food. Food. Food. There was lots of good barbeque and I got a wonderful sandwich from the Sitton Motor Lines booth. The cakewalk provided dessert for several folks, and there were also booths selling cookies and donuts. I just had one disappointment- no one had funnel cakes. I’m sure we can remedy that next year!
All in all a wonderful day. I hope you can make plans to join us next year. It will be Oklahoma’s centennial year and we are already busy with BIG plans for an even better Heritage Day!
