Parade participants take cover Saturday from a water fight during Eudora's annual Central Protection Association's celebration. The city also used the event to kick off its sesquicentennial events.

Little girls waved from one float as John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Small Town” blasted on a boombox.

Eudora, population 6,300, used its annual Central Protection Association festivities to kick off the city’s sesquicentennial celebration. Festivities that began Thursday continued through Saturday evening with the grand parade in the downtown area. Eudora plays host to an annual picnic and celebration to honor the Central Protection Association, which protected the town from cattle rustlers and thieves in the early days.

“I don’t see anyone who has as big a cake as us,” Matthew Kelso, 13, said of the giant cake celebrating Eudora’s 150 years on his 4-H float.

Grandparents and parents gathered with little ones in front yards to watch the paraders move past, throwing candy.

The parade included fleets of jeeps, John Deere tractors, vintage automobiles and four-wheelers.

The Eudora High School Class of 1987 piled on one moving platform, the Class of 1997 not too far behind. Another car carried a few from the Class of 1952.

The Red Hat Society members shaded themselves under wide bonnets and purple umbrellas as they sat on a trailer.

“This is our first year,” said Ruth Renick, queen of the group. It was “just a wild idea while we were having lunch.”

About a dozen children dressed like animals and circus performers and sat inside a long line of carts behind Ted and Linda Scribner’s float.

“This is the Scribner family circus,” Linda Scribner said. “Grandpa has been working on this for months to get it ready for all the grandkids to ride in.”

The festivities included a carnival, games and live music. More activities are planned for several days from September to early October,