Jill's Journal: 'It's more than a flag ...'

It’s official. The theme for Brandon’s 2022 Loyalty Day Parade has been chosen: “It’s More Than a Flag.”

Embrace it. Build your parade entry around it. But most importantly, we should always honor it. 

Always held the first Sunday in May – this year’s parade steps off at 1 p.m. Sunday, May 1 from the Brandon Valley high School parking lot, heads west on Holly Boulevard to Main Avenue, where it turns south and wraps up by the VFW. Following the parade, there will be drawings for 20 youth bicycles to be given away. And there’s no purchase necessary to win, but bicycle hopefuls will need to be present to claim their prize.

As always, candy is allowed to be thrown from parade units. I’m pretty sure that’s one of the many things that kids of all ages look forward to is the oodles and oodles of candy that’s tossed to the crowd. 

It’s never too early to start organizing your parade entry. I encourage you all to do it in respect to “Old Glory” and what America’s stars and stripes represent.

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My apologies to the 1974 Brandon Valley football team. Of course, I didn’t learn of my snafu until after the press had printed last week’s Brandon Valley Journal along with some extra copies, but this ol’ gal printed the wrong football team photo. The picture you saw in last week’s special section dedicated to the 2022 BV Athletic Hall of Fame inductees, was actually the 1973 team.

Now, in my defense, I headed to the Brandon Library and requested the ’74 Lynxonian, which the librarian happily handed over to me. At the same time I snapped some photos of photos from the yearbook – I was chatting with the library staff – and obviously did not pick up that this was not the team that went 9-0 that season. Of course, I couldn’t tell that by the photo itself, but had I read some of the details, perhaps the light bulb would’ve come on.

A day or two after the Journal hit the newsstands, a Lynx for life – Nancy Brown – clued me in my error. So, I did what all journalists with their tail between their legs would do, I headed back to the library, this time asking for the 1975 yearbook.

It was missing in action.

But I had a clue where it may be.

So, next I headed over to BV Athletic Director Bill Freking’s office in search of the missing yearbook.

I didn’t find it.

So, the helpful gals in the high school office, dialed up the library, and much to our surprise, the missing yearbook had been found. Mary, the librarian, made the hike from the library to the office, where I took photos of the correct football team, possibly to be displayed on the screen. As it turns out, the photo didn’t make it there either. But hey, I gave it the ‘ol college try’ or in this case, I tried to make a wrong a right. After all, that’s The Lynx Way.