Little Cousin Jasper Festival 2022

The Little Cousin Jasper Festival enjoyed great weather on Friday and Saturday and was rained out on Sunday. This year they had a wood carving of Little Cousin Jasper.

 On Friday evening a movie was a featured attraction once it got dark. I enjoyed watching the volunteers setting up the screen.

Below it is almost set up. There is a lot of work needed to put on an event like this.

While the volunteers were setting up the screen, Olga the concert violinist performed on the stage.

The featured attraction for Saturday was a Beatles tribute band, British Mania. They played for over two hours and had several changes of costume. Apparently the band is not made up of a constant group of four but has a group of musicians so the group that is on stage at one event may be different from the group at their next performance.

There were a lot of food vendors. One that caught my eye was making the ice cream that they sold at  the festival.

The big attraction of the festival, judged by the crowd, was the parade on Saturday.

The Rensselaer/Marion Township Fire Department had several of its trucks in the parade, including its new ladder truck.

The ambulance service from Remington was represented. Southern Jasper County Ambulance will be part of Jasper County EMS.

The parade had two Jasper County EMS vehicles. This ambulance is now housed in Remington but will be moved up to Rensselaer when the Jasper County EMS takes over from Phoenix. If you follow this blog, you know that EMS service is frequently discussed at County meetings.

Below is a second Jasper County EMS vehicle.

The Rensselaer Central High School Marching Band was in the parade. It is smaller than when my children were part of it.

There were several tractors from the Retired Iron group. These seemed to be the oldest.

D1 had three vehicles, including its huge tow truck.

Most of the entries were business. I do not recall Sage Bridal being in a previous parade.

There were three of these vehicles that I think were race cars. Or maybe they were for demolition derbies.

At the end of the parade was the grand marshal, Shorty. 

There was much candy for the kids to pick up, which is the major attraction of the parade for many of the onlookers.

A couple of other notes

The Walk with a Doc events sponsored by Franciscan Health will start Tuesday, September 13. Each of the six events starts with a short presentation from a medical person and then participants walk about a mile through Weston Cemetery. Registration starts at 11:45 with the talk starting at noon. Everyone is welcome and there is no entry fee.

Speaking of Weston Cemetery, the Memories Alive at Weston Cemetery will take place next weekend. The dress rehearsal was held on Sunday and there were many excellent performances. Almost all of the presenters have had considerable theatrical experience. There will be two performances, one in the Hall Shelter at 11:00 and the other the walking tour at 2:00. Tickets can be purchased at Willow Switch or Browns Garden Shoppe. I suspect this week's edition of the Rensselaer Republican will have a listing of the people being featured.

Intrigued?