Things like this didn't happen in our neighborhood

From a distance, one early evening every summer there is a faint rumble of sirens that progressively get louder and louder. It's a booya . The Newport Fire Department gathers and around 6 p.m. they start up every known apparatus that has a siren, load up candy and a few dozen volunteers and just drive their firetrucks up and down the streets in a mini "fire awareness" parade.

It is always somewhat hilarious to see the reaction of new neighbors to this ruckus. Is it a fire? A huge accident? Today they all came streaming out of the apartment complex trying to figure out what was going on.

Nope it's just the fire people of Newport having a little summer fun and attempting to raise some money.

The advertisement on the Newport's website says this: "Every 2nd Sunday in July it's Booya time in Newport. For over 50 years, the Newport Volunteer Fire Department holds it annual Booya! The festivities begin on the Saturday Night before the Booya, with a parade through town! Fire trucks from neighboring communities as well as Newport's own, parade through the Streets of Newport, announcing that it's Booya Time, once again. What will you find at the Newport Booya? Something for everyone of all ages. There's kiddie games and bingo! There's a liquor raffle and a beer tent! There are pull tabs and refreshments! And of course there's Booya! There are two flavors, regular Booya and Cajun Booya! Booya, with a kick!

Fun might be stretching it a bit. And I mostly find that people who have to sell everything! With and exclamation! Tend! To! Be! Overselling!

I do find it rather amusing but the parade is over in a short amount of time. I'd head over to try the regular Booya but I admit, the idea of it, particularly on a hot summer day, scares me a bit.



We had parades in Arlington Heights but typically for 4th of July or Memorial Day.

The craziest the fire department got was during Frontier Days. Every year they would have water fights...

Each department would set up their tanker trunk and hoses and the teams of firefighters would use the water to try and get a beer keg looking container over the other team's line first. The best part of this summer activity was how wet the innocent bystanders got.