A 30-minute parade led off the festivities followed by a firefighter competition with water buckets, or the bucket brigade and the hose lay. The fire company grounds off School Lane also had local vendors and food trucks.

The parade started with the company’s siren blast. The route went around the village and down Route 118 and firefighters threw candy out to children as the volunteers in fire engines, tankers, pumpers, brush, and utility trucks and UTVs used their horns and sirens.

“I’m very glad to be here,” said Tera Stackhouse, who carried a camera.

She said she volunteered to take pictures for the event and put them on her business page at Ginger Snap Photography LLC.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Skip Kepner, left with his wife Chris, helps their grandson Russell Sullivan collect candy at a parade celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

The parade was led by Grand Marshal Glen Temple, 81, the oldest serving member, who was chief 30-plus years. In all, he said he served, and continues to, for 64 years.

The parade featured a float that was a tribute to the Temple family with the words “A Family Tradition” written on the side of the flatbed, which hauled a stand depicting the photographs of Archie Temple, Glen’s father, and brother Richard or Dick.

Family was the cornerstone of the parade and celebration.

Nevin Arthur was driving a 1965 Allis Chalmers D15 Series II. Seated on his lap was Jasper, 6, Arthur’s grandson.

“This is a good thing,” Arthur said of getting to take Jasper to be in the parade on the family tractor on the fire company’s 75th anniversary.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Spectators watch from a porch during a parade celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

“This is a good parade with pappy,” Jasper said.

Charlie Worthington, too, was thinking of family during the parade.

He was driving a white or cream colored 1964 Mercury Comet Cyclone with a red leather seat interior. Beside him, posthumously, on the passenger seat was a picture of Carl D. Poust, his grandfather, the car’s original owner.

“He’s riding with me,” Worthington said of Carl, who was a Ford dealership mechanic.

The various fire companies and departments participated in the parade. They were from host Lairdsville, Laporte, North Mountain, Hughesville, Millville, Picture Rocks, Benton, Unityville, and Muncy Area.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Anthony George with a team of seven others compete in a hose laying challenge during a 75th Anniversary of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

Plenty of hot rods roared, and one did a burn out laying rubber on the road.

There was a truck with an owner of an Indian Motorcycle and a 4-wheel drive and other farm tractors and car models of many types.

Folks gathered on the front porch of the Lairdsville Cornerstone Restaurant, with a signature wood wagon wheel.

Best of all, while it was early August and hot and humid, the storm clouds gathered but held off.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent A team from Unityville Volunteer Fire Department takes off from the starting line during a hose laying challenge at the 75th Anniversary of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Team members from Unityville Volunteer Fire Department dump water into a barrel during a bucket brigade challenge at a 75th Anniversary celebration of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent A competitor dumps water into a barrel during a bucket brigade challenge at a 75th Anniversary celebration of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Competitors dump water into a barrel during a bucket brigade challenge at a 75th Anniversary celebration of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Team members from Unityville Volunteer Fire Department fill buckets during a bucket brigade challenge at a 75th Anniversary celebration of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Team members from Unityville Volunteer Fire Department fill buckets during a bucket brigade challenge at a 75th Anniversary celebration of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Team members from the Temple Family dump water into a barrel during a bucket brigade challenge at a 75th Anniversary celebration of the Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.

RALPH WILSON/Sun-Gazette Correspondent Russell Sullivan, 7, reaches for candy thrown from a classic car during a parade celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Lairdsville Community Volunteer Fire Company in Lairdsville on Saturday, Aug, 3, 2024.