MENNO, S.D. — For an hour Thursday morning, July 4, there were at least three times more people on Menno’s main downtown street than the total official population count of the Hutchinson County community.
That’s the way it is almost every year at this time, when people from all over the county, region and even out of state converge on the town to take in the hour-long procession of floats, new and vintage cars and agricultural equipment and practically any emergency vehicle that has a siren or flashing lights. “We do it about the same every year,” Dave Mensch, parade director for the annual event, told the Mitchell Republic as he helped register parade entries. “Today we’re probably going to end up with entries up into the 80s and 90s, and we’ll have a good full parade and a beautiful day to do it.
” A rough estimate of people lining Fifth Street as the annual July 4 parade got underway numbered around 2,000 people, easily eclipsing the census-determined population of 616 residents who call the town home. And that wasn’t even counting the hundreds that took part in the parade, a longtime tradition in the community that dates back roughly five decades. It’s all part of a larger overall July 4 celebration in the community, which also included a street dance the night before.
Later on Thursday, following the parade, the Menno FFA hosted a barbecue and Pioneer Acres, the home of the annual Menno Pioneer Power Show north of town invited the public to take part.