By Dan Deming
Hutchinson’s July 4th parade is always over-commercialized and, for some, too long, but almost always enjoyable. Great weather, plenty of clouds, nice breeze and no heat strokes.
This year, the many candy throwers seemed to take extra care tossing their goodies. That made it safer for kids to chase after scattered pieces of obesity but parents still had to count heads before heading home.
It seemed somewhat excessive to have five, or was it six, vehicles promoting Hutchinson’s Silver Dollar Tavern. At least, in volume, they topped car dealers who for many years entered a seemingly endless string of cars and trucks.
The 2025 extravaganza seemed to set a record for combined number of dogs, coupled with people, walking or riding some type of transportation. It was refreshing to see Hutchinson’s reconstituted Sky Ryders Drum and Bugle Corps marching and playing their drums and horns this year. Before disbanding decades ago, the group was often seen and heard along the parade route and having them arise again is a plus for the salt city.
Greatly missed after another Christmas parade appearance was Nisly Brothers Trash Services’ motorized outhouse that self-propels itself along the street. If we need anything to remind us of the holiday, it’s a portable potty that travels under its own power and makes people wonder whether anyone is inside doing “their business”.
The big question coming out of this years’ Patriots Parade, as it is called by sponsors: what in the hell was a large green dinosaur doing in the back of a small pickup with a sign promoting “The Worlds Largest Things” in Lucas, Kansas? Investigative journalism at its’ best can now reveal this was a first-time entry into the Hutchinson parade but a clever way of promoting an attraction in beautiful downtown Lewis. The metropolitan community boasts of the “worlds largest collection of the worlds smallest versions of the worlds largest things”.
For those who haven’t visited Lewis, that includes versions of the largest belt buckle, hand-painted Czech egg, ball of twine at Cawker City and world’s largest hand-dug well at Greensburg. At last report, the pickup dino had nothing to do with Independence Day, but neither did a lot of other parade entries. It was a unique way of getting publicity and is just 78.6 miles away, with a driving time of one hour and 16 minutes.
Most of us can’t wait until the 2026 Patriots’ Parade when we’ll be celebrating our nations’ 250th anniversary. Hopefully, the self-propelled porta potty will be back by then.