The first Pickens Christmas parade I reported on was back in 1999, the first year that I was the Editor of The Pickens Sentinel, when I covered parades around the county, taking photos for the newspaper. But I have been attending Pickens Christmas parades for much longer. My maternal grandparents lived in Pickens, and we would walk from their home up to Main Street and watch it with them. At that time, the parade was held in the afternoon, as it was when I was at The Sentinel.  I remember my grandparents and our family who lived locally walking the block up to Main Street to watch the parade.

As years passed, and my grandfather was unable to walk up the street with us, my grandmother would walk with us. Then, when my grandmother could no longer walk up the street, she would sit on her front porch and watch the parade pass by, because, when the parade entrants would finish, the floats would turn off Main Street and drive by on the road my grandparents lived on. We would walk back down the street and watch the parade again, this time with her.

We didn’t take photos back then, but we have the memories.

It’s different now, since my grandparents are no longer with us. But, because of those memories, even though all of the parades around our county are important, the Pickens Christmas parade will always be special to me.