In this past week my family enjoyed two celebrations of American life. One, a hometown Fourth of July parade, certainly was repeated thousands of times over in communities all across the country. The other, I feel confident in saying, was far more unique though emblematic of the quirks and curiosities that make so many small, rural towns charming in their own special ways.

The event I’m alluding to, in the town of Rogue River (astride said river), was the annual National Rooster Crow Contest. Held on the last weekend in June since 1953, activities include a fun run, parade, food and vendor booths, fun for kids (like face painting and rides) and a car show. The crowning event, of course, is the rooster crow competition, wherein an individual may enter one rooster whose crows are counted within a 30-minute time period. The contestant with the most crows wins a cash prize and bragging rights for the year. Recently, a Human Rooster Crow competition has been added,   with the winner determined (by quality, not quantity) by crowd consensus.

We arrived Saturday morning in time to watch the parade, which began with the obligatory column of first responder vehicles, sirens and horns blaring.   There followed floats and entries from church groups, local businesses and service organizations,    along with a few politicians, equestrian groups    and classic car clubs.   Of course, several entrants featured obvious references to the avian heroes of the weekend.

Because it was a hot day and we had two tired, small children with us, we didn’t stick around for the rooster crowing competition, but we certainly enjoyed mingling with the crowd, sampling the food booths and checking out the local artisans’ wares.

The following Wednesday we made our way into downtown Central Point, Oregon, found a shady parking spot and arrived at the pancake breakfast put on by a local Boy Scout troop. This has become an annual tradition, and the Scouts have an extremely efficient operation feeding a large number of parade goers. From there we moved on to find a good spot to observe the parade with a little shade and room for the kids to get their wiggles out (and have access to the candy tossed from passing floats).

Once again we watched a cross-section of our community trooping by: dance programs, antique and classic car lovers, businesses ranging from dog groomers to arborists to realtors (handing out t-shirts, Frisbees and water bottles), the high school band, churches and nonprofits. Everyone stood as the colors were marched by with representatives of the military branches, and all again stood and applauded as a local World War II vet passed by  and later when resident Purple Heart recipients came by.

All in all, it’s been a wonderful week to enjoy the pleasures of being members of small, tight-knit communities and celebrating our unique American way of life.

— Patty Vanikiotis, associate editor/copy editor