Famous In a Small Town

Not too long ago I listened to the words of Miranda Lambert's "Famous In a Small Town" and it just plain hits home. I'm from a community of less than 700 people. Bevier, Missouri is a place of childhood dreams, belonging, and home. I lived here until I graduated from college. After my father passed away it was way to difficult for me to return very often. Even though some of my very best friends still live there, I just didn't return. Not even to one of the biggest small town fairs around, the Bevier Homecoming. Last spring I started missing some of those people, missing what life used to be, and missing my old self. As I've said in previous posts, I've made some changes this year. I could not wait for Homecoming time even though it rings the bell of summer being close to over.


Back to Famous in a Small Town, many of you are Facebook followers. The newest trend on FB is remembrances of your community. I've seen it for my small town, my friend in California, and many more. So when I read a post on Small Town Big Memories of Bevier, I had to laugh. A friend just named two old ladies who lived in town. Alta and Josephine. Enough said. If you are from Bevier, you know exactly who I am referring to...sisters who lived 2 houses down from one another on the same street. They did everything together. Seriously, when I read their names on Stacy's post, I had to laugh and think of this song. Everyone knows everyone. Everyone knows your business. Everyone is there when you need them. It's the best thing.


This is the best part of Bevier Homecoming for me...my family. The girl you see sitting by my husband is my Aunt Paula. She's not that much older than me and has always called me her little sister. I truly feel like her little sister. She lives in St. Louis, the older I get, the more I miss her. It's the weirdest thing. I told her and everyone else in her family, she needs to move closer...or I need to move to St. Louis.

Kenny Scruffs attended his very first Bevier Homecoming parade. He liked it until it got too loud.

A flyover just prior to the parade starting. It was beautiful weather. Absolutely beautiful as compared to previous HOT days.

And now it starts. I could not get over all of the emergency vehicles that made an appearance this year. We talked about how we hoped that some of these places did not have some kind of catastrophe or something. And it was great that they were there. These volunteers put in a lot of time for so many activities in their communities.

What is a parade without local queens. My cousins Emily and Abby joined me in attending the queen contest this year. I haven't been to one in years. We had a blast. I can't wait to do it next year. We all picked our top 3, I was off by one.

Floats are some of the best ever. This church always has a great float.

Chickens even...

This is one of my favorite pics, what's a parade without Dorothy? Isn't she lovely...

There were plenty of class reunions too. I'm thinking about getting in touch with my former classmates because our 25th reunion will be next year. We may be riding in the parade too!

This is small town for you. My friend Paul's son drove this CASE tractor. With difficulty. It wouldn't stay running. He finally had to pull it over. But voila...

In less than 2 minutes help arrived to move him forward. My aunt said in a big parade in the city, it would take 2 hours and a stalled parade before help would arrive. A lot of people will remember Luke and his CASE tractor stalling out. Famous in a Small Town!

This was awesome! These little ball players had a routine while they walked the parade route. Almost like a military drill. Whoever their coaches are, kudos for them making this even more fun!!

And, you always know the end of a parade when the horse trot by... This parade last 45 minutes. That's typical Bevier style parade time. A St. Louis visitor smartly remarked as we were leaving home to head to the parade that this would only last 5 minutes. I think he may have been a little surprised even.

I have more pics for another post on Saturday evening's activities. But just to put an ending on this I want to tell you about a conversation with my hubby as we were heading home that night. As we were driving out of town, he commented, "I bet the town people are happy when all of this is over." He was referring to the tons and tons of cars parked on the streets, people's driveways and yards in order to attend the evening's entertainment. For some reason I answered in agreement then told him no. It's not like that. The Bevier Homecoming is something that has taken place ever August for the past 78 years. Bevier locals look forward to it, prepare energetically and fill with a little sadness once it's over. I cannot explain what it's like unless you experience it yourself. People plan their vacations around it. For some, it's the only time of the year they return home to see family and friends. It's a time of celebration because, well you know, everyone is "Famous in a Small Town"!