Maddenfest Parade & Fun

The day dawned gray. A light mist followed as we drove toward Brentwood, then as we arrived at the edge of the “City of Warmth” the mist blew south resulting in a pleasant, dry Maddenfest Day! Tracey Whitaker, Tereza Zakova and Desiree’ Baker set the parade line-up flags in place and the fun began. It has been said that everybody loves a parade. What’s not to love?

Our first arrival to the line-up was a remarkable group of Brentwood High School Alumni – Class of 1941 in a deep maroon Model A Ford. Maxine Gray-Reisenleiter, Norma Hodges-Murphy, Ron Vassalli and HC Michener have the warmest smiles and biggest hearts you could imagine. Bigger still, they have history. The four friends share an unbreakable bond that has lasted 71 years and counting. Be watching for more on this fantastic four.

As the line-up grew, there were Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts. There were floats and politicians, bands and dancers. More Brentwood Hall of Fame Alumni arrived to fill an antique fire engine. Brentwood Football Booster Club along with Pam Thornton of State Farm piled their giant grill on a trailer to provide hot dogs for fans along the route while Gene-Del Printing distributed fun notepads from their cool HHR. Add in the Brentwood police cars, fire truck, ambulance, our city horticulturist driving city administrator Bola Akande in our environmentally friendly “Green Machine”, beautiful horses ridden by “Silver Spurs” real cowboys and we had a parade!

As the parade wound its way to Bentwood Park, kids 9 days to 90 years old lined the way. American flags, candy and beads a-plenty brought cheers from the crowd. We caught up with nine-year-old Eli Zinsser of Brentwood, who showed us his full bag of candy and summed the whole thing up in three words, “I love it!”

As the parade reached Brentwood Park, Maddenfest cranked into full gear!

You’ll have to read the next blog to learn more about the rest of the day’s fun. We may have even caught you in a candid shot or two…