KINGWOOD — Roy and Rose Mullinex of Aurora sat on a bench in front of the courthouse. Rose said they were waiting for the parade to start.
“We came to enjoy ourselves,” she said. “We haven’t missed a Buckwheat Festival in 40 years.”
The Mullinexes were just two of the many people who lined the sidewalks waiting for the Farmer’s Day Parade to begin. Nancy Smith from Barbour County said she was also there for the parade. “I love parades,” she said.
Cheers went up when the WVU Marching Band made its appearance. Several people stood to get a better view of the marchers and others pulled out their phones to take photos and videos.
Bands were not the only attraction. About 50 Shriners brought smiles to the crowd with their clowns and vehicles.
“We’ve been doing this since the ’70s,” Brad Forbes of the Curmudgeon Cruisers said. “It’s one of our parade highlights.”
“I’ve been participating in the festival since 1980,” Dan Barkley, Davis County Shriner Potentate said. “I was a member of the Tucker County High School Band.”
Jack J. Walters, who will serve as Potentate in 2019, said the Shriner mission is to bring free medical assistance to children through the Shriner’s Hospitals.
“You feel good when a child smiles,” he said. “It encourages us to continue.”
Some who came to the festival Saturday came to cheer on the participants. Kimberley Dean said she came to see her granddaughter Natalea Mumaw.
“She is Valley District Miss. I am very proud of her,” Dean said. “She is also Miss Majorette of West Virginia in the thirteen to fifteen year old intermediate age group.”
Elizabeth Nelson, of Aurora, along with her daughter Iris Nelson, 4, said they were there to see Iris’ sister Ingrid. Ingrid, a member of 4-H, had the Reserved Grand Champion Dairy Goat. When asked if they were going to the fair grounds Nelson said, “We rode the rides all last evening.”
Rhonda Miller said her son, Trai, was a member the Preston County Marching Band, and her other son, Nathan, was one of the people riding on the Bruceton-Brandonville VFD float. She said she and her daughter, Jenica, 7, and her niece, Arabella, 2, were there to watch the parade.
