Press Releases

Chair-totting dads highlight parade
By Naomi Dillon Daily Herald Staff Writer
Posted 7/25/2004

They were coarse. They were crude. They were modern-day cavemen.
The Precision Lawn Chair Dads were easily one of the most entertaining bits of the annual Algonquin Founders' Days parade on Saturday.

Clad in American-flag boxers and white sleeveless T-shirts, the squad of roughly 20 men were the half-way point in an almost two-hour procession that marched the length of Algonquin's Main Street.
Part of the 44th annual Algonquin Founders' Days festival, the parade featured a long list of the usual suspects.

The fire trucks from a handful of area departments blew the eardrums of just about every spectator there.
Clowns and local politicians threw nutrition to the wind as they caused children to turn nearly maniacal beneath a torrent of candy.

For a while, the parade seemed destined for banality - that is until the dads came marching home.
Who knew a metal lawn chair could be used for anything other than sitting?

With tongue planted firmly in cheek, each member of the troop swung these beach necessities to and fro, barking out lines like: "She don't know and I don't care, I'm wearing yesterday's underwear."

Though it was clearly in jest, the routine was executed so convincingly, it left the crowd in a quandary.
Should they laugh or applaud?

They did both.