Courthouse Centennial Anniversary

Sorry about the long period of dead air here. But, I'm in the mood to blog tonight and I have a number of topics that have piled up since last time. So with out further ado, here we go.

A week ago last Sunday I accompanied a friend to the town's celebration for the centennial of the county courthouse. He had be hired to videotape the festivities. Once we arrived at the square we found displays of various cars and all sorts of booths. As people milled around bands played, including the high school marching band. It had been a while since I had seen a marching band and although they didn't march they sounded pretty darn good.

The ceremonies began with a bang, literally. They packed a metal cylinder full of explosives and placed an anvil on the top. People cheered, or winced, when the bang went of with enough force to move the anvil off of it's platform. Several government officials from the city level on up to congress gave speeches. After a judge gave a dull and long-winded speech the Free Masons had the stage for most of the rest of the time. I have read and heard that the Free Masons were a little off base and that the were. They did a symbolic cornerstone ceremony for a new cornerstone that was to be installed at a later date. The most amusing part was how they measured if the top and the sides were level, while the stone dangled in the air from a rope.

All in all it was a good afternoon. I never really had much to do with the town as I usually keep to the college. But it was nice to get out a bit and see some local festivities.