Friday night brought another popular Chelsea Fair event: the tractor pull. What happens at a tractor pull? Well, the name tells you what you need to know: tractors pull stuff. (If you’d like more specifics on tractor and truck pulls, the NTPA can answer all your questions.)

The first few tractors looked like tractors. They’re all modified to some degree, but they still look somewhat normal.

Next up were the mini modified tractors, which look nothing like tractors. They also look like a lot of fun.

Then there were more tractory tractors…

…and tractors that weren’t even pretending to be normal tractors.

Not even the least little bit.

They’re as loud as they look, too. These tractors are the reason I take earplugs to the tractor pull.

Tuesday’s demolition derby had to be canceled due to severe weather, but to the delight of derby fans throughout the Chelsea area (and probably the fair board, too), Thursday’s derby had no such trouble.

As you may recall from the figure 8 demolition derby post, the goal of this non-numerical demolition derby is not to complete any number of laps, but to use your car to demolish your opponents’ cars until they can no longer move.

When this car was on the road, it had a trunk:

One of the more fragile and vulnerable parts of a car is the radiator. When something happens to the radiator, it’s often hard to miss.

Especially for the driver.

There are three reasons the officials will pause the derby: an injured driver, a fire, or a potentially dangerous car part lying on the ground. You know, like this one:

There was one round of trucks mixed into the Thursday derby:

This driver exhorted the crowd to make some noise before he resumed smashing into the 4570 truck:

When the trucks finished, the cars were back at it.

Remember what I said about the radiator?

One of the more fascinating events at the Chelsea fair is the horse pull.

There are a couple different types of horse pulls. This pull used a stone boat.

Each of those blocks weighs 1,000 pounds. Draft horses are POWERFUL.

One horse took a moment to smile for a photo.

They kept adding weight.

The winning team ended with a full pull at 9,000 pounds. Like I said, draft horses are POWERFUL.

When the horses are pulling, they’re kicking up plenty of dirt.

When they’re not pulling, they’re just hanging out.

It’s not the highest-profile event on the fair schedule, but it’s well worth the time. It’s fascinating to see what draft horses can do.

Have I mentioned that they’re POWERFUL?

They might have been having fun:

Maybe a little bit:

But, you know, not TOO much:

The demolition derbies are one of the Chelsea Fair’s big draws because everybody loves an evening of controlled vehicular violence. Tuesday’s derby was canceled due to heavy storms, but Wednesday’s weather was considerably more cooperative, so the figure 8 derby was good to go.

Before we begin, let’s go over the difference between a regular derby and a figure 8 derby:

• In the regular derby, the goal is to use your car to batter all the other cars until they can no longer move. In other words, the goal is to be like a typical Michigan road.

• In the figure 8 derby, the goal is to be the first to complete twelve laps. If in the process of completing twelve laps you have the opportunity to push other cars out of the way and/or into the wall, you can go right ahead and do it. In other words, the goal is to be like a typical east coast driver.

Okay, on to the action.

The Chelsea fair parade was on Saturday, the last day of the fair. For as long as I can remember I’ve sat with my family and watched the parade go by, but this year…well, this year was just a little bit different. Okay, it was a LOT bit different. Because I was named the citizen of the year, I was invited to ride in the parade. How crazy is that?! THAT’S SO CRAZY.

I planned to take two things with me in the parade:
1: Candy, because anyone who grew up in Chelsea knows candy is an important part of this complete parade, and
2: My cameras, because I had one particular photograph in mind — I’ll let you know which one — and because…well, because that’s why I got to be in the parade in the first place.

(I ended up having my nephew Clayton ride with me, and that turned out to be wise because throwing candy in the Chelsea fair parade is a full-time occupation.)

The helpful people at the Chelsea Chamber of Commerce had called me to let me know where I needed to be and when I needed to be there. I wrote down the details:

At the appointed time, we arrived at the designated spot on East Street to find a lovely red Mustang waiting. (Varsity Ford was kind enough to provide a car and a driver — thank you, Varsity!) Here’s the car:

And here’s the sign on the side so people would know why that random guy was smiling and waving in the parade:

I also discovered my friends the Van Hoeks had made a fun sign for me:

As we were waiting for the parade to begin, Howdy Holmes — the man in charge of the company responsible for Jiffy Mixes — stopped by to say hi. When I mentioned that I was just a tiny bit sad not to be watching the parade because it meant I wouldn’t get a box of Jiffy, he walked to the Jiffy truck waiting on the next block and came back with not one but THREE boxes of Jiffy Mixes!

I know it’s easy to buy Jiffy at the grocery store, but I’ve always enjoyed getting the box from the fair parade. Having Howdy hand-deliver three boxes? It doesn’t get any better than that. Thanks, Howdy!

You may have noticed the odd symbols on my shirt. Those are old shorthand symbols from my grandmother’s Munson Shorthand Dictionary. Not too long ago I made a shirt featuring the Munson symbol for Michigan, and because of that, my friend Sara — a fount of awesomeness — said I should make a shirt with the symbols for “citizen of the year” and wear it in the parade. I wasn’t sure if she was joking, but I couldn’t resist that idea. Here I am with Sara and the shirt she suggested:

As 1:00 drew nigh, Clayton and I climbed into the car and waited for the parade to start. This was our view as we waited:

When we started moving, I thought hey, why I don’t I just take a bunch of pictures down the whole route? So I did. What follows is a sampling of those photos (with a more complete set compiled into a gif at the end of the post).

Here we are on Middle Street:

I was happy to discover who was directly in front of us in the parade: none other than the Monitor Base Ball Club of Chelsea! They were accompanied by a club from Northville — they had a match after the parade.

We continued on Middle…

…and approached Main…

…and turned onto Main.

The next photo is the reason I took my camera with me:

Here we are approaching the old post office:

And then the library:

Just past Summit Street:

At the now-vacant Federal Screw Works property:

It’s still a little strange to see that property without a huge factory building on it.

Just past Lincoln Street:

See those folks off in the distance on the left? I know those people. It has been alleged that I am related to those people.

Those two camera-wielding people on the left are my parents. Here’s a better look:

Here’s the rest of the rowdy crew:

We kept driving south:

We passed Pierce Park:

Somewhere in that crowd on the left are my friends Chris and Aubrey from the fabulous Chelsea Alehouse. They’re very friendly.

See?

When we reached Old US 12…

…we turned right and headed past the Wolverine toward the fairgrounds.

We turned left onto Old Manchester Road and stopped in front of the fairgrounds, and that was the conclusion of my first ride in the Chelsea fair parade.

As promised, here’s an animation of the series of photos I took down the parade route:

I thoroughly enjoyed my ride in the parade. Many thanks to all who had a hand in giving me that opportunity!