The American flag fluttered gently above the black horse’s head as rider Charlene Brundage led the 32nd annual Dayton Daze Parade through town at 3 p.m. Saturday. Parade watchers lined the road, visiting with friends, neighbors and visitors.

Parade watcher Donald Buske, seated in a lawn chair beside his mother and a friend, said what he liked most about Dayton Daze was community.

Amanda Adams agreed. She said her favorite thing “was getting the community together for an event.”

Adams was busy selling raffle tickets for two guns and other items, directing people to the silent auction and vendors around the perimeter of the lawn outside the Chuckwagon, formerly the Idle Spur.

A huge yard sale was going on across the street, and the Dayton Women’s Club had finished up a rummage sale and lunch at the church in time to watch the parade.

When the parade went by, visiting stopped as people watched the horsewomen followed by the Dayton Wild Horses, alias kids from the Dayton Elementary School. Some were mounted on “horse” bikes, with a cardboard horse head and ears attached to the handlebars. Almost all the children sported western hats and some had buckled on toy pistols. A small covered wagon and prairie girls completed the herd.

The Great Scots Bagpipers, an assortment of vehicles, and many fire trucks from Chief Cliff and Rollins, vintage and new, rounded out the parade. Candy rained on kids and adults alike.

Typical of a small town parade, Dayton’s traverses the route twice. The second time around, Julia Husted, 12, rode her paint horse standing on her saddle, to the delight of the watchers.

Parade judges Lucy Carlson, Chris Moore and Tim Skiftun compared notes and tried to decide who won. Carlson stole a ride on Brundage’s horse, and then went over to join the crowd.

One of three musicians tuned up and began singing Ian Tyson and Tom Russell songs from the porch of the Chuckwagon as a crowd gathered for a pulled pork dinner.

Dayton Daze benefits the Chief Cliff Fire Department, and pretty much the whole community joined the party.