BAKERSFIELD, Calif. (KGET) — The 36th annual Westchester neighborhood 4th of July parade took place Friday along 20th Street, west of downtown Bakersfield. It was replete with beauty queens, kids on bikes, water cannons, and — to an extent we haven’t seen before — water balloon wars.
After all, Independence Day isn’t strictly a patriotic observance. It’s a celebration of family, community and three-digit summer days. They’ve refined that combination to a T in the Jastro Park neighborhood a couple blocks east of Oak Street over almost four decades, with bands, firetrucks and kids — lots of kids.
Herb and Sue Benham couldn’t have known what they were getting themselves into when they started this thing…