Hometown Memorial Day Parade - Part 3

This is part 3 and the last of the Memorial Day parade posts. The parade took place on Sunday, May 30th, in Rensselaer, New York, the traditional home of the song, "Yankee Doodle." The parade was a genuine piece of small town Americana and brought tears to many eyes:

Many, perhaps most of the floats, bands and marchers were unknown to me. But the traditions, the color, the enthusiasm, the patriotism, the heartfelt emotions were all a real part of Memorial Day parades all over the country:
This was apparently a drum corps from Rensselaer Middle High School with cheerleaders. I don't know why there were no brass instruments:


On and on the marchers and floats kept coming:

If you click to enlarge this, you'll see that one of these marchers is a man in a dog costume. I have no idea why but I liked it anyway:

This was a marching band which brought back lots of memories from my days as a trombonist in my high school band:



The firetrucks were at the end of the parade and represented the cities/towns of Rensselaer, East Greenbush, Clinton Heights and Defreetsville, New York:

They were apparently arranged by color - first the red ones, then the yellow ones:

As the last of the firetrucks passed by me, I turned and looked back up the street toward my house. That man in the red plaid shirt and baseball cap is my next-door neighbor who has had a heart transplant and was released from the hospital just yesterday. He was happier to be home and prouder of his country than just about anybody:

But the groups of friends, relatives and neighbors stayed around and, in some instances, turned the parade gathering into a party:

and this is Lexy, my neighbor's dog. She is so happy to finally have him home again that she was beside herself. Man and dog reunited, a happy day for both of them and a good day for a hometown Memorial Day parade: