LIONS & BANDS & HOGS, OH MY!

The 110 floats in Sunday's Cape Girardeau Parade of Lights made this year's event the largest in the parade's four-year history.

"We've probably had about 30 new entries this year," Doc Cain, event chairman, said. "We had a lot of people calling us from throughout the Bootheel wanting to participate this year."

Ed Walker, Emilee Young and Cindy Williams brought Dorothy, the Tin Man and the Cowardly Lion to the parade all the way from Bernie. Walker, who directed the Home Health Services Wizard of Oz float, said they'd never participated in a parade with lights before.

"We've got a fire extinguisher over here just in case," he said. "We have a home health care service so we were working on a home theme. We decided on Dorothy and the Wizard of Oz and now we're trying to find a way to tie that in to Christmas.

"Dorothy is still trying to get home -- for Christmas."

The parade, sponsored by the Downtown Merchants Association and KBSI, took about an hour and a half to wind its way from Capaha Park to Hutson's Furniture Store on Main Street. Accompanying the floats were fire trucks from East County, McClure, Ill., East Cape Girardeau, Cape Girardeau and Perry.

"If we have a fire tonight we're in good shape," Cain said.

The four high school bands that made the walk were especially appreciated by the Downtown Merchants Association, which has had a difficult time attracting bands.

"We've always wanted to go with the first Sunday after Thanksgiving," Cain said. "School systems tend to not participate in things on Sundays. But we're not willing to give up our date -- this is a great way to kick off the holiday season.

"Hopefully people will come around to our way of thinking."

Music wasn't a problem during the parade as many of the floats were equipped for sound. The Second Baptist Church of Cape Girardeau float had about 25 singers ready to carol as they went.

Second Baptist float director Fay Smoot was one of the few float builders that got started well ahead of time.

"We started about six weeks, maybe two months ago," she said. "We had a lot of people that wanted to do this."

Cain said overall preparation for the parade is year-round.

"We always have a session right after the parade to see what we could have done better," he said. "Actually it's an ongoing process. But the meat of it takes place about four months before the event."

Duane Floyd got together with some friends last weekend to start on the Hi-Cotn and Country Club float.

"We're trying to pinpoint everything now. We've got about an hour left so we should be all right," he said prior the start of the parade. "These are the people that really jumped in and helped. We do have some that don't want to participate but they like to tell you how to do things."

Floyd, Walker of Home Health Services and Cammie Elfrank of Special Effects hair styling in Cape Girardeau said they wanted to participate in the parade to make people more aware of their businesses.

"We're trying to get clients out of this," Elfrank said. She and four friends started work on their float Saturday. "With the holidays it's hard to get everybody together. But I think it looks damn good."

Jim Estes of Jackson decided to ride his Harley-Davidson Wide Glide motorcycle in the parade, despite the chill, for one good reason -- to show off.

"We're Harley people, we're a little crazy," he said.