WEST PARIS - Taking advantage of a lull in Saturday's showers, the eighth annual Old Home Days parade got under way at 10 a.m.

The annual weekend celebration is aimed at sponsoring community togetherness and spirit by giving people an opportunity to spend time with old friends and make new ones.

Saturday's parade is one of the biggest draws of the weekend, and hundreds lined the route from Briggs Street to the village center.

Floats representing local organizations, antique cars, horses, the Kora Shrine Temple Funsters and Go Cart team, scouts, school children and more commemorated the town's 50th birthday.

Leading the parade were the Maine State Police pipers followed by floats, the Old Crow Indian Band, fire department units from West Paris, Norway, Paris, Greenwood, and Woodstock, units from Tri-Town Ambulance and Rescue Services and PACE paramedics.

The three-day celebration opened Friday evening with a supper sponsored by the West Paris Historical Society. A children's parade marched from the Agnes Gray School to the midway on Kingsbury Street, and craft sales were offered along with food booths.

Saturday evening events were mostly washed out by rain. One exception was the West Paris High School Alumni Reunion and Banquet, which had a good turnout of alumni.

On Sunday, the celebration wrapped up with an old-timer's baseball game at the Harold C. Perham Sports complex and a soapbox derby race on Derby Hill on the town office grounds.