
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: FRIDAY, December 9, 1994                   TAG: 9412100007
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 1   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: NANCY GLEINER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Short

MOUNTAINTOP EXPERIENCE

If you happen to take the long and winding road to the top of Bent Mountain this weekend and see a lineup of what appear to be tractors covered with Kmart blue-light-special Christmas decorations, it's not the altitude or the fog deceiving your senses.

It's the Second Annual Unofficial Bent Mountain Tacky Tractor Christmas Parade.

This is not meant to be ``your typical downtown parade,'' according to resident Larry Florin, spokesperson and a founder of the event. The tractors, festooned with lots of ``shiny plastic blue stuff,'' is ``for the tacky in all of us,'' Florin said. ``This is only embarrassing to people who take it seriously.''

So popular is this local happening, Florin says, that the number of vehicles entered has doubled ``to a massive number exceeding four.'' Although not many spectators lined the parade route last year, several neighbors were seen looking out their windows.

Last year, Florin drove a 1948 Farmall tractor, pulling a 1942 International haywagon, pulling a trailer with a 9-foot Christmas tree and a generator (to illuminate the cheesy decorations).

The caravan will begin on Bottom Creek Road promptly at 2 p.m., or ``when everyone gets there,'' Saturday and Sunday, Dec. 17 and, probably, on Christmas Eve. The tractors will slink along what is commonly known as ``the loop.'' Good viewing spots are still available this year.

by CNB