Ralston shows its Independence

Todd Kessler of Omaha stood belted, strapped and cinched into his white armor.
He was the image of intergalactic villainy standing on someone's lawn in a shady Ralston neighborhood.LPG cylinder World of Warcraft Gold
Then, somewhere inside his plastic shell, a cell phone rang.
"Dang! How am I going to get that?" Kessler asked aloud.
Somehow he did. Kessler wiggled his left hand under his armor and pulled the telephone off his sticky left hip, where it was wedged between his skin and an undergarment — because storm troopers have no pockets.
Kessler didn't say whether the call brought new orders from a Sith lord, a tip from a bounty hunter or intelligence from a biker scout. In any case, Kessler and about a dozen other costumed members of the Imperial 80th Squad were marching through Ralston a short while later.WOW Gold runescape money soccer table
The "Star Wars" squad received a warm welcome Wednesday from thousands of people lining a mile-long Fourth of July parade route through Nebraska's self-proclaimed "Independence City," despite the storm troopers' reputation as thugs fighting a band of movie freedom fighters.
Children shook hands with passing storm troopers. People jumped into the formation to pose for photographs with the men in plastic.
Police estimated that 43,000 people turned out in the Omaha suburb of 6,200 for the parade, according to Marlene Hansen of the Ralston Area Chamber of Commerce. The towns' scheduled annual fireworks spectacular capped the day.
Wendell Kronberg, who was Ralston mayor 40 years ago when he forged an agreement with Omaha that the larger city wouldn't swallow up the small town, was the parade marshal and citizen of the year.
"This is a great little town with a lot of pride," said 76-year-old Kronberg. "This is a coming-home day for people who now live out of town."
One of those returnees was PGA Tour golfer Scott Gutschewski, a Ralston High School graduate, who recently moved to Frisco, Texas, a suburb of Dallas.
Gutschewski, one of the tour's most powerful drivers, rode in a muscular 1966 Ford Mustang convertible, as the parade's grand marshal.smoke detector wow powerleveling
"I remember my parents parking at my grandma's house just a few blocks from here and we'd walk to the parade," he said. "We haven't found that sense of community anywhere else yet."
The 30-year-old Gutschewski, who this year topped the $1 million mark in PGA Tour career earnings, plays next at the John Deere Classic near Rock Island, Ill.
Among the more than 100 parade entries was an authentic reproduction of a Wells Fargo stagecoach, pulled by quarter horses and driven by Alan Cartwright of Fort Worth, Texas.
It was one of 22 similar rigs owned by Wells Fargo Bank being used Wednesday in parades across the country. Cartwright's wife, Georgia, drove one in a Fourth of July parade at Lubbock, Texas.LOUIS VUITTON LPG cylinder
Alan Cartwright said electronic technology so dominates the lives of many children that the sight of horses and a wagon amazes them.
Cartwright's coach followed two Corvettes and a 1929 Ford delivery truck carrying about a dozen members of the Red Hat Society, an organization of women who wear red hats and dress in purple when they meet for fun.
The women came from three local chapters: the Red Rubies, the Flaming Floozies, and Dingbats in Red Hats.wow gold wow powerleveling
Jan Cline of the Dingbats chapter drives members in a restored, purple-painted delivery truck. She said the group always receives enthusiastic applause at parades.
"The men clap because of the truck," she said. "The women clap because of us."