Earl got the cool camera. We all got one, actually. The bank was so grateful for us finally closing out that bad chapter in its existence that we got the $5000 reward, seven radios, and an invitation to appear at the next board of directors meeting and dinner as the bank’s guests.
So that was pretty cool. Even though we didn’t get to keep all the gold, we at least knew that we had found well over a million dollars this time, and getting $5000 wasn’t bad either.
We never got back to the Mystery Game. I’m not sure why. I still think it was a pretty good idea and should have made us some money, but I think that’s just the way it was getting to be with us. We did something for a little while and then we moved on. This time we moved on to something that moved.
Amie was the one who suggested that we put a float in the town 4th of July parade. Although the prize money for first prize, $200, wasn’t even close to our usual goal and that of our club’s charter, we still all voted in favor of the idea.
Of course James stated that our float couldn’t be just like any other run of the mill parade float – we all knew that ours would have to be different. It sure was.
Earl and James figured that we needed to make everything original from the ground up. The two of them spent several hours at a drawing board while the rest of us were sent out for supplies.
The Miles City Junk Yard was a treasure trove of incredible finds and we used it a lot. We found almost all of the specific automobile parts that James asked us to get there, as well as the platform we would use to build the bottom of the float on.
One of the features Earl and James planned was to have a canister of helium mounted on the platform with tubing leading to 30 separate nozzles. Each nozzle had a small eight inch wheel spoke attached with 30 individual sprocket tips that would have an uninflated balloon attached. A system of turning the wheel spokes will be attached to the wheels of the float ensuring that they turn simultaneously as the float moves through the parade. At regular intervals 30 brightly colored helium balloons will inflate and be sent skyward. The seal was accomplished by using a small heated press which melded the balloon tip together allowing the balloon to hold the gas.
The floats were judged by the people watching the parade. The way it works is to have each person watching the parade given a tennis ball painted with the unique colors of that year’s parade. Each float has a basket on it that is designed to hold the tennis balls that the people toss inside if they want that float to be a winner. The parade makes a complete circle down Main Street and Yellowstone Streets which allows each person to see each float twice. The balls are tossed into the baskets and at the end of the parade counted. Whichever float has the most balls is the winner.
We wanted our float to be the most unique one that had ever been in a parade anywhere. Along with the balloons we all decided that we would go with the pop-up book idea. The main platform on the float would open like the top of a box folding away from the center. Each section would house a different part of the story of Miles City as it grew from a small fort to the Cow Capital of the World. As actors, we would be housed in the opening we left above the balloon platform. We would be dressed in three quick change costumes that we could alter in seconds depending on which stage we were on.
The first stage popped up into a fort setting with us dressed as cavalry soldiers and local Indians who were sharing a fishing pole and having a great time. The second stage would then go up in the form of an old western small city with old storefronts bearing the same name as some of the businesses of today that had been around that long. We were dressed as cowboys and merchants. The next stage opened into a more modern version of our town with current buildings and stores. We would be wearing our regular clothes for this one. Then came our big finale.
Peter, who would be riding with James who would be driving the float, would switch a valve and the helium tank would begin filling up an almost lifelike replica of a hot air balloon. We would be raised into the air by a crane, although it would appear that the helium had inflated the balloon to the point of lifting us off of the ground. Once we were high above the heads of the people they would see our signs on the balloon reading “From Oz to Miles City, better than Kansas!” As the 30 brightly colored helium balloons rose up from the float into the sky we would then send forth a shower of candy so that all of the kids would throw their tennis balls our way and the entire float would quickly go in reverse to begin again 50 feet further along the way. It was super cool.
We called it the Animated Floating Float, or AFF for short, and we were pretty sure that no one had ever designed or ridden in anything like it ever before. We were pretty certain that we would win.
For the next two weeks we worked on the float. We used the shed behind the church at Amie’s house. Her father said that we could use it. We liked it because it was fairly hidden in the back of the church and it had a strong metal door with good locks. Luckily we had a pretty good bankroll to use to finance the float, and even though it probably doesn’t seem to make a lot of sense spending all of that money to win $200 it had become such a fun project that we just didn’t care about that. We decided at one meeting that we would make sure to pick the next project based on revenue more than fun.
One day Mark thought he saw Bob and Tracy running into the neighbor’s yard but when we went to investigate we didn’t find anything and we felt pretty safe with the locks on the shed. We shouldn’t have been so trusting.
As parade day got closer, we started putting the finishing touches on the float. James and Earl had it rigged so that the platform sat atop an engine that would be practically invisible and would be really quiet running. Peter and James would ride inside the cab, which was located up front and had an open viewing port so that they could see. The rest of us would ride atop the float in the opening underneath the moving platforms until it was time to begin. We finished all the painting and the final touches on the Friday before the parade. The next day at 11am we needed to be in place by the city park to line up for the parade. We planned on meeting at the shed by 8:00 to make sure we had plenty of time to load up and get into our starting place on time.
I arrived at 7:58 and knew right away that something awful had happened. The doors to the shed were opened and James, Cora and Amie were standing outside with heads hanging down looking very upset.
“What happened?” I asked rushing up.
I didn’t have to wait for an answer. As soon as I came to the opening and looked in I saw that everything we had put so much work into was strewn all around the inside of the shed. The platforms were pushed over and the pop-ups were all ripped apart. The helium tank was empty and on its side. The balloons were all pulled off and cut open. Everywhere I looked I saw ruin. Someone had been very thorough in their destruction.
“Oh, my gosh,” I said. “It’s ruined.”
Ruined it was. Absolutely and totally. This float would not float anywhere. As the others arrived, each one looked upon the destruction with shocked and sad eyes at seeing all of the work and money we put in wasted.
“What can we do?” Mark asked.
“Nothing Mark,” Cora answered. “There’s no way we could fix this in time for the parade.”
“It was Tracy and Bob. We saw them,” I said.
“I’m sure it was them,” Amie answered. “But there’s nothing we can do right now that will help us today. I’m afraid this time they beat us.”
“No,” I said. “There’s got to be something we can do.”
“Like what?” asked Cora.
“I don’t know,” I answered. “I just don’t want to give up.”
“You know what?” Cora said. “I don’t either.”
“Neither do I,” Amie said. “But what options do we have? Everything’s ruined.”
“Not everything,” James said. “The float still drives and it still has a platform.”
“What can we do in two hou
rs with a platform that moves?” I asked.
That simple sentence put us in a flurry of idea generation and creativity the likes of which we had never seen before. We were all focused on finding some way of recovering from the attack by Bob and Tracy and making it to the parade on time with an entry that could win. In the end it was a pile of poster board and a set of black markers that provided us with the answer.
Just before 11 we pulled into the city park and watched the curious faces as people looked over our simple unadorned float when they saw us. We took our place and waited for the start of the parade.
When it was our turn to move, we started out and we positioned ourselves along opposite sides of the tennis ball collection basket with our prepared set of posters. Using Peter, Amie and Cora as spotters, Mark and I would hold up the poster most applicable to the people we were driving by to get the best reaction. When we were passing a group of cowboys we held up the poster that read “Cowboys are the best! Throw your tennis ball if you agree!” If we were passing some kids from Custer County High School we held up our “CCHS rocks! Vote yes by tossing your tennis ball!”
Our best sign turned out to be the one that read “Unused tennis ball collection float. Toss now.” We got hundreds of votes using that one, most of them on our first pass through. Knowing that there was a huge rivalry between Miles City and its neighbor city Glendive our sign reading “Think Miles City beats Glendive in everything? Toss the tennis ball to say YES!” really scored big.
Earl was scrambling around gathering up the tossed tennis balls and putting them in the overflowing basket in the center. We needed to start holding them in our hands and pockets to keep them from going over the side. Our second time through was even better as the “Unused tennis ball” sign did its magic and brought hundreds more onto our float.
When we reached the end, there wasn’t any need to count our totals. We caught a glimpse of Tracy and Bob watching as we were awarded the first prize trophy and check. We collected the highest number of votes in the history of the parade.