Words and Light

Yesterday, about 70 fire apparatus paraded down a three-mile stretch of a state highway. The local high school’s marching band led the way, and people in the area were excited. As with many such assignments, I made sure to get a few photos of the main event (the parade) and then focused my attention on the more interesting aspect, i.e., the people who were watching.

© 2011 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Stacy Johnson and her daughter Savannah, 8, watch from their front yard as the parade approaches on Hanover Street near the Nashville Volunteer Fire Company station on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011.

I also photographed the most precious great-great-grandmother I’ve ever met. She’s also the only great-great-grandmother I’ve ever met. Almost all five generations of her family were represented on her son’s porch that day as the parade passed them by, which I thought was just incredible.

© 2011 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Mary Jane Hoff, 87, coos at her 9-month-old great-great-granddaughter Hailey Kime, held by her son Leroy Hoff, before the parade passed in front of Leroy's porch on Hanover Street on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011.

Mary Jane was wonderful, and so was her entire family. I’m glad I had the opportunity to meet them, if only for the time that passed as we waited for the parade to arrive and as the parade went by.

© 2011 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Mary Jane Hoff, 87 of Jackson Township, takes a picture of the parade as it passes her son Leroy's house on Hanover Road on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011.

The Hoff family’s house wasn’t the only one I visited as the parade inched by. The Johnsons, just a few doors down, were watching, too. (Stacy and Savannah Johnson are featured in the first photo in this post.)

© 2011 by The York Daily Record/Sunday News. Ashton Johnson, 3, sucks on the lollipop that was given to him by parade participants as he sits on his front porch and watches the parade pass on Hanover Road on Saturday, Aug. 20, 2011.