Clarence the Christmas Dinosaur

Tis the season to drive down the street at three miles per hour with a dinosaur on the roof and hand out candy canes to complete strangers.


Ace and his friend, Clarence the dinosaur, volunteered to appear in the Hutchinson, KS Christmas parade last Saturday to promote the the Reno County Mental Health Association's Christmas homes tour fundraiser.


Clarence's previous appearance was at a night-time parade last year in Joplin, MO. The lights had to be removed for this day-time parade.


He also had a year of grunge which had to be washed off before this year's parade. Where does one wash a dinosaur? Why, a car wash, of course.


Of course, a dinosaur being hosed down in a car wash is bound to attract some attention. Jan Lawson and her son, Logan helped out a bit.


Before the parade, Ace met a couple of Santae.




"Oh, say, can you see..."


During the parade, Ace's crew handed out 8,000 candy canes with flyers.






The crowd was quite dense, but we made sure that almost everyone got a candy cane. When I ran out of candy and had to run to the van for more, the discontented children reminded me of feeding bread to ducks in a park: when you run out, you'd better get away fast.


Santa's miniature horse-drawn sleigh and beautiful entourage pass Reger Rental, a business that uses a restored classic neon sign.


An ogre, a grinch and a fair yuletide maiden.


There was some nice amimal-watching, too...




...and Shriners in little cars...


...and red hat ladies.


After the parade, most of the crew assembled for a pic.


Ace made a new friend in the form of Molly Bribiesca, who helped pass out candy canes.


What fun is a dinosaur on your roof if you can't drive around with it and elicit a few looks? We did just that, and finished the morning with lunch at Roy's B-B-Q.