NEEWOLLAH

Neewollah is of course Halloween spelled backwards. Every year in Independence KS, a huge 3 day celebration goes on celebrating Neewollah. this is how it got started: ABOUT NEEWOLLAH        Neewollah celebration began in 1919 as an effort to provide positive activities for kids of all ages in place of the typical Halloween pranks that occurred in the community of Independence, Kansas. In the beginning the events centered on parades, morning, afternoon, and night on October 31. The parades consisted mainly of decorated cars and carriages. Queens and princesses from area festivals rode in the parades, along with our own Queen Neelah who was selected based on votes bought at a penny each. The Great Depression and World War II interrupted the Neewollah celebration but in 1958 four businessmen revived and elaborated on the Neewollah theme bringing it back as a 3-day celebration. Today Neewollah is the largest annual celebration in Kansas. The city of Independence will grow from a town of just under 10,000 inhabitants to 75,000. Today's celebration now includes 3 parade.  Go to: www.neewollah.com to learn more about their celebration and maybe next year if in the area you will come and join in on the fun.  It’s for the young, middle and even the old enjoy and have fun.  We only went to the parade because Amazon.com had a huge float and we wanted to see what it was about.  Any Amazonian workers could join in on the float either walking next to it and passing out candy or by riding on the float.  I choose to be a by stander next to my husband. As we were waiting along with many other spectator for the parade to start, we all of a sudden heard this loud roar and up looking up here came a military fighter planes flying very low over our heads.  It was really awesome and we soon learned that was the beginning of the parade.   They had well over 130 in the line-up with lots of marching bands playing along.  One really stuck out the most only because they put lots of extra nifty steps into their march which made them very unique and good. Of course I was waiting to see Amazon.com’s float and to see if I would recognize anyone from work.  Sure enough a few faces that I did know were either walking or riding on the float. I think it was unique for the way they paraded the antique cars with a police car next to it.  It almost appeared that they were racing or maybe preventing a race. I think we even found our future camper!  Wonder if would make it through the mountains and the back woods where we like to adventure? And there were some pretty awesome floats in the parade as well! HAPPY HALLOWEEN EVERYONE!!