Down on Main Street

Viewers lined Main Street in Windsor to watch the motorcycles, antique tractors, floats and other participants in the Septemberfest parade Saturday.

Children collected candy thrown by marchers in flying discs, also tossed to the crowd by marchers.

The parade was just one of the events during Septemberfest, the annual four-day celebration in the city.

Ionia resident Sydney Brown said her favorite part of the parade was “the candy!”

The 8-year-old was there to see her brother, 17-year-old Ron Watring, march in the parade with the high school marching band.
The family comes every year, said her mother, Linda Brown.

This was the first year for Betty Hollon, of Independence,  who sat and watched the parade with a 6-week-old puppy, J.D., short for John Deere.

Her husband, Stanley Hollon, drove a 36B John Deere tractor in the parade. He was a first-time participant, and the two came for the tractor show, which started at 1 p.m. Saturday.

“It was a pretty good little show,” Hollon said of the parade.

The parade featured over 50 entrants, including children’s trains, emergency vehicles, horses and mules.

“It was very good. We had an excellent parade,”  said Ed Stewart, Windsor’s Man of the Year, who liked the tractors.

He was in the parade, along with Woman of the Year L. M. Fetters.

The event started several years ago, he said.

“The overall atmosphere comes alive for the festival activities,” he said.

Rides and booths dotted Benton Street, and a craft show brought booths to the parking lot of United Methodist Church.

“It’s just a great time, with family activities. It’s just a hometown atmosphere,” he said.

Stewart was also a winning bidder at the pie auction, where donated pies — some still warm — fetched high prices at the church.
William Egbert, of Windsor, bought two pies. He spent $70 on a strawberry pie on behalf of First Community Bank, and also purchased a pie for a friend.

“We’ll be sharing that with all of them” at the bank, Egbert said. He said the festival was “lots of fun.”

The fun concludes today with a lawn and garden tractor pull at 10:30 a.m., a gospel sing at 6 p.m. and a truck and tractor pull at 6 p.m.