Pioneer Days parade must see for some

Jo Moss of Texico sat with her family on the hood of their car at Saturday’s Pioneer Days parade.

She kept an eye on her grandson as he bashfully picked up candy thrown from the flotilla of parade floats that cruised Main Street.

“He’s shy, but so am I,” Moss said as she directed the little red-headed boy to pick up a piece of gum just to his side. Moss said she attends the parade every year.

“It makes me feel like a kid again,” she said, waiting patiently for her 17-year-old granddaughter to pass by with the Clovis High School color guard.

“That’s mainly why we’re here,” said Terresa Fallis, Moss’ daughter. “Just look at all these people. I just love all the horses and people that come to this thing.”

Hundreds of children and adults alike lined the street for the standard parade staples such as rodeo horses, painted clowns, local clubs in miniature motorized cars. And then there were a few things out of the ordinary such as a semi-truck pulling a milk wagon and Cadillac with longhorns that moo-ed.

Clovis native Brandi Holguin took in the 35th annual parade while on leave from a Louisiana military base.

“Parades are so different here,” said the 20-year-old, who remembers attending Pioneer Days as a child. “I used to think parades in Clovis were the bomb. But in Louisiana, they throw more than just candy. They throw beads and large stuffed animals. It’s very Mardi Gras. But being at this parade brings back so many memories.”

Holguin sat with friends she was visiting for the weekend.

John Montano, parade chairman, said there were 71 entries, a few more than last year.

“Of course, there’s always the mounted patrol,” he said. “The parade is in conjunction with the rodeo so there’s lots of mounted groups.”

Rodeo queens from around the state as well as Miss Rodeo Arizona and Miss Rodeo America were in attendance.