A wild 250th birthday bash in Bonduel

I’m not sure there’s a more perfect setting for a 250th birthday bash than the Bonduel Fourth of July parade.

Cheese flew like confetti, sausage did too. Uncle Sam held court from his float, and Benjamin Franklin’s proud turkey did too.

It was a glorious juxtaposition of patriotism and glee.

A man balanced himself casually against the top of a truck cab and fired ice pops at the crowd. Innocent-looking tweens with a gleam in their eyes shot water guns off slow moving floats.

Kids grabbed fistfuls of flung candy, and shared them with their less aggressive colleagues.

A baby sat serenely on the street near a curb and waved a pudgy fist at passersby. Vintage tractors made their way down the street. A fighter jet flew over.

The Bonduel band played patriotic tunes.

This year’s parade drew several thousand people to a village that sports a population of 1,500 on a good day.

The town swells like a heart on Independence Day, and people generously offer up their front lawns for overflow parade viewing.

It felt good to sit in a lawn chair on a Sunday afternoon, ducking cheese and celebrating the work hard/play hard people who make America beautiful.

Happy birthday America.