(NNS) March 21, 2024
Nibbling’s Famous Sticker Tape Parade and Spring Grenade Festival Blows Nibbling Sky-high Again
By Michelle Bean, Editor in Chief
The Nibbling Spring Grenade
Festival Committee
Want to make a big impact in your community?
Want to learn how you can become
a real leader instead of a dud?
Then join us for our
Annual Spring Grenade Festival
Community Leadership Training Session
“Pull the pin on community apathy”
Nibbling’s uniquely own Sticker Tape Parade is today, followed immediately by the Spring Grenade Festival, a Nibbling tradition since 1871.
The floats line up at the airport where the parade begins at 10 am, on the south edge of Nibbling.
The parade route proceeds straight north up Main Street, ending in the gigantic circle drive at the entrance of Nibbling High School Football stadium. From there, everyone drifts aimlessly into the stadium for the Grenade Festival.
If this year is like the others, the parade saunters slowly, serenaded by Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture broadcast through loudspeakers all along Main Street. This is all coordinated magnificently with practice explosions for the Spring Grenade Festival.
Bring the whole family out! There’ll be loads of candy for the kids, with no worries of emergency cavities during the parade– Roger Teddsworthy’s Nibbling Dental Chair Rental is right on the parade route, next door to Nibbing Rent-A-Dentist.
I’ll let Oscar Mayeye, one of Nibbling’s oldest story tellers, tell you all about it in this interview I grabbed just before he stole away to his still on the outskirts of town.
Me: What’s the first you remember of the Spring Grenade Festival?
Oscar: Oh, it’s like it was yesterday, don’t ‘ya know? The Grenade Festival had kinda fallen away when I was a kid, but it came roaring back in, thanks to Hector Klumpp’s father, Durden Klumpp.
Me: Tell us about that.
Oscar: Yes ‘mam. Hector was born in the wee hours of the morning, on what just so happened to be the historic day of the Grenade Festival, which led Durden to believe Hector to be some sort of destiny child.
Hector’s poor Mom hadn’t given birth to him but ten minutes before, when Durden snuck him right out of the hospital nursery and rushed to Nibbling High Football Stadium, deciding to open the Spring Grenade Festival right that minute to celebrate his birth. Durden stood in the frigid air with Hector all bundled up at like, 2:30 am or something.
I was the only one there with Durden. He made a short passionate speech to no one, rushed out onto the field and blew a big hole on the fifty-yard line.
They memorialized the spot with a placard– ‘Klumpp Crater’.
And we’ve kept up the tradition ever since, making a huge impact on our little community.
Me: What about The Sticker Tape Parade? Has that been going since Hector was born?
Oscar: Well, no, now. I started the Sticker Tape Parade just two years later, on the day of Hector’s little brother Andrew’s Birth, since they shared the same birthdate, don’t ‘cha know? Of course, after Durden disappeared into the Strange Uncharted Mountains when Hector and Andy were just 15 and 13 years old respectively, we’ve moved the Grenade Festival time from 2:30am until after the parade, so as not to inconvenience Nibbelers.
Me: What would you say is the purpose of the Spring Granade Festival?
Oscar: Well, I don’t rightly know. I guess if the Festival ads tell you anything, when the brutal winters up here are comin’ to an end, folks want to get together and pull the pin on community apathy. We want to wake up from our long winter naps and ask life’s deeper questions.
Me: Like what?
Oscar: Like—
Why do we want to know our future?
Why do we desperately wish for it
to bring us happiness?
The festival is all about Prompting life’s questions…
Me: Since 1871!
In the above old photo, one of Nibbling’s favorite sons, Hector Klumpp, tries to see into his future at the Annual Nibbling Spring Grenade Festival’s Howitzer of Horrors exhibit, while Roger Tedsworthy looks on.
Why do we want to know our future?
Why do we desperately wish for it
to bring us happiness?
The Nibbling Annual Spring Grenade Festival
Prompting life’s questions since 1871
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