The people who made it go

In 15 or 20 years, some of the youngsters who watched the Christmas Parade last Thursday make its loop on Mill and Main streets in Colfax are certain to be marking Christmas elsewhere. They might be off at a distant military base, or they might be working the swing shift at a large urban hospital. Maybe they will find themselves staring at taillights while repeating a long commute along the I-5 corridor.

While at those locations, they might mentally go home for Christmas and think of the 20-plus minutes when they stood out in the cold, dived for candy and watched all those machines go past with all those lights.

They saw the cast from the CHS musical Cinderella, a live Grinch, some inflatable grinches, horses, and finally, Santa Claus.

In addition to remembering the event, they could, as young adults, think about all the people who put on the big show.

The parade this year set what is believed to be a record with 34 units. Organizer Val Gregory noted some entrants rolled more than one unit for the parade to make it longer than anticipated.

Behind those entries are people who applied their skills, time and imaginations to make their short-lived creations. The parade is a de facto demonstration of the shop skills and talent of people who keep machines of all types running throughout the year.

Most of the units in the parade made an appearance after somebody selected a truck or piece of equipment, cleaned it up, applied seats and other adornments and then topped it off with lights which had to be powered up.

After the entries were ready for the big show, they had to be rolled to a staging line on Mill Street. The drivers and passengers had to wait in the cold before they got the call.

Each entry must have involved a background tale of decisions made, time and dollars donated for the cause.

One of the repeated questions could have been "How are we going to do this?"

And then somebody came up with the answer, and the project advanced.

Besides being a Christmas show on wheels, the parade is a rolling demonstration of Colfax shop skills and invention.

Most of it is done by people who day-to-day make Colfax and the farms around Colfax keep rolling.

Their Christmas skills, and their day-do-day ability throughout the year are appreciated.