A parade first.

After 19 homecoming parades, you would think I'd have seen it all. But this year, I had a new experience: driving in the parade! The newspaper staff didn't have a pickup to use, so I drove my SUV, mostly to resupply the candy that my staffers were distributing to the hundreds of kids lining the street.

Fortunately, the slow pace and frequent stops let me get a good look at these kids: