But I didn't have a doll in the buggy. I had Dewey, a little white poodle.

I don't think we won any prize, but I thought I had the best buggy and passenger in the parade.

Dogs were much better to play with than dolls. And Dewey loved to go for a ride in the buggy.

Also, I thought he was much better looking than any of my dolls. Besides, he could play ball and he would roll over. When we were tired, he would snuggle in a chair with me and go to sleep. However, he did sometimes snore.

Pequot Lakes has held kiddie parades for many years. This year, however, they have a rule - no animals in the parade. So no dogs in doll buggies. In past years, there have been dogs pulling wagons with kids aboard.

When my three children were youngsters, we lived in Arden Hills. The Moshers and their three children lived across the street. It was a Glen Paul Avenue tradition for all the kids to decorate their bikes, wagons and whatever, and we would have our own Fourth of July parade.

It really wasn't a decorating contest, but it was a competition. The more stuff - flags, crepe paper, etc., the better.

There was just one rule - only kids could do the decorating. Sometimes mothers were surprised to find their kitchen utensils hanging on a kid who was beating the pan with two wooden spoons.

There was a way you could put a stiff card in the spokes of a bicycle and it would make a wonderful noise. We lived in a new post-World War II development with small three-bedroom houses and lots of young families. The street was just two blocks long and was not a busy one. It was a great neighborhood for young families.

The Moshers and Ryans would share a supper of hot dogs and hamburgers, coleslaw, potato salad and ice cream cones.

Vivian was a superb baker and she would make a Fourth of July cake with creamy butter frosting that was a real treat.

It was suburbia, but on a very small scale. Lake Johanna Elementary School was about four very long blocks away. Later, a junior high school was built in the area.

So it was a complete little neighborhood. There was a grocery store, a hardware store and Cecil's barbershop on Cleveland Avenue.

There were no houses behind those on the north side of the street. The neighborhood kids had several acres of hilly land to explore. Spit Lake was a small pond about a block away.

A couple of times, some enterprising young boys found they could build a fire in the field and they thought the moms wouldn't know.

Someone always saw the smoke rising from the field and the volunteer fire department would arrive. It didn't take much to put out the fire, and what could have been more exciting than to see the fire trucks coming across the field with sirens blaring and lights flashing?

Several small boys got the "no more playing with matches" lecture.

A neighbor boy, Charlie Mosher, loved pyrotechnics. When he graduated from the University of Minnesota with a degree in geology, he joined an oil company where he was legally allowed to set off lots of dynamite in his search for new oil wells.

A happy Fourth of July to every kid who is in the parade. What a wonderful way to celebrate.