Hundreds of Knottsville residents lined up along Highway 144 on Sunday afternoon, gathering together to kick off the holiday season with the annual Knottsville Lions Club Christmas Parade. For about an hour, a mile-long stretch of Highway 144 was closed down so that various floats, golf carts, four-wheelers and vehicles could travel safely through a portion of east Daviess County.
Sunny skies and 62-degree temperatures could’ve been comparable to a West Coast Christmas on the unseasonably warm December day, but cool, gusty winds put those comparisons to rest as people scrambled to tie down their float decorations and bundle their children up with blankets and coats before the floats took off down the street.
“Overall, we had a great day — the weather was great. It was a little windy, but we didn’t let that stop us,” said Barbara Roberts, a Lions Club member who ran the registration table at the parade. “It’s a little challenging to keep your decorations on when it’s windy, but I think people came prepared.”
Roberts said the Knottsville Lions Club included a lawn mower raffle and a split the pot raffle as part of this year’s parade. For the split the pot, whomever’s name was drawn received half the money raised, while the other half went toward the Lions Club. Those who entered into the lawn mower raffle could choose between the mower or $3,000 cash if their name was drawn.
“It all went great, we had a great crowd this year,” Roberts said. “We don’t charge anything to be in the parade, but people can make donations, but they don’t have to.”
The winner for Best Float and a $200 prize went to the Johnson family, who used a barnyard Christmas theme for their float, complete with children on board dressed in chicken, rooster and farmer costumes. Three judges volunteer to vote each year.
The parade also included the Thruston and Knottsville Fire Departments, the Daviess County Sheriff’s Office, Doodlebugs Grocery, two corvettes driven by members of the Corvette Club, Miss Kentucky Katie Bouchard, the Southern Indiana Region British motor car club (S.I.R. Brit) and many more.
Roberts said that since Knottsville’s parade isn’t run by a government or city-based organization, it’s up to civilians to organize the yearly event–in Knottsville, it’s Barbara’s husband, Stanley Roberts, who puts the parade together each year.
“He usually goes out and starts planning it a good six weeks out–to reserve the ambulance, which is a requirement, he usually does that two months ahead of time,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot that goes into it that people don’t realize.”
