"" Writer's Wanderings: In My Backyard--Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival

Monday, June 22, 2009

In My Backyard--Avon Heritage Duct Tape Festival

Part I -- The Parade

What could be more appropriate than a celebration of duct tape for Father's Day? This past weekend we enjoyed a parade and a wonderful festival in Avon, OH, home of Duck brand duct tape. The parade was scheduled on Saturday at 10 a.m. and made a mile journey from the high school to the Veteran's Memorial Park where the festival is held.


I lost count of how many floats went by but someone reported there were about 25 in all. The first one and largest was made by the employees of the company and their families. The theme was Mardi Gras and they featured a large jester's head that swiveled from side to side behind the mascot duck who was obviously grand marshal.

Other floats I found ingenious, amusing, or just plain amazing included a butterfly with a frog chasing it. Someone was inside the frog with a long handled "tongue" stretching out regularly to try to catch the butterfly.

The boy scouts built a nice looking float emphasizing their pine derby cars. Scouts followed the float on foot costumed in pine derby car creations--fashioned from duct tape of course.

The 2007 float winner was back. It was a Duraclean company van completely covered in duct tape. All of the white is white duct tape. The chrome was covered in gray and even the license plate was covered in clear tape. If you didn't get close to it, you wouldn't know it was all taped. I can't imagine being able to put that much tape on something and have it be so smooth.


Last but not least, my favorite, the World's 1st Duct Tape Parade Balloon. It was hard to tell if it was truly made to be inflated or if it was just a tongue-in-cheek rendition of a parade balloon. Several "handlers" held ropes that dragged the balloon along the parade route--proving that duct tape is indeed very durable even if it isn't inflatable.

(Tuesday: Part II - The Festival)






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