Thursday, June 30, 2005

July 4th Parade

My small town is gearing up for it's annual 4th of July Celebration.

A small parade down Main street, which unfortunately will not pass directly in front of our house. We have to walk up about a half block to get good seats. Bummer. I was hoping to be able to setup on our front porth to watch the parade. That would be too Americana for words.

C entered the 4th of July parade last year down in my in-laws small town. She won first prize with her Paul Revere-inspired costume and "yankee-doodle dandied" up bicycle that S made to look like a horse (complete with a painted up cardboard and plaster-of-paris head piece).

This year we'll just be spectators since it'll be our first fourth in our small town. Carnival, games, rides, and contests will take place at the largest park in town a few blocks away as well. C is hoping for a watermelon eating contest.

(Hold on, sarcasm coming) Weather should be nice for it.

Predicted temps will be in the high 90's with humidity in the 75% range due to a series of storms that are due to hit tonight and carry through to Saturday. Swell. Gotta make sure to "Deet'up."

To prep the city for the onslaught of visitors from the neighboring communities (25 - 50 people, maybe), the Chamber of Commerce is handing out patriotic bunting for homeowners to decorate the front of their homes with. We had our own, thanks, but if I did partake of this CofC freebie, would I have to return it....washed?

Our inflatable Uncle Sam awaits all comers to our small town festivties.


Whether he can stand up to the wind, rain, and hail of the impending storms, is yet to be seen.

1 comment:

Kenn said...

My first wife was a preacher’s kid living in Liberty, New York. The parsonage, which was next to the church, was also at the foot of a hill that went up to the oldest cemetery in the area. There were graves that went all the way back to before the war of 1812.

Every Memorial Day there was a parade that started on the other side of town, came by the parsonage and then went straight up the hill to the graveyard. There were bands, small floats and the usual collections of veterans from both the World Wars and the recent police action. There were flags, banters, uniforms and pretty girls riding and waving from the back of new convertibles.

There was also a younger brother that had his birthday on Memorial Day. The family told him, for the first years of his life, that the parade that went right by his home was in his honor. They pointed out that he was the only kid in town that had such a glorious celebration on their birthday. He was six years old before he found out the truth.

Doug was a bright kid who graduated from Arizona State with a 4.0 grade average and went on to excel in graduate school. From there he started a career as a psychoanalyst. I’ve always wondered how he turned out, and if he was successful in his career choice.

He was the biggest cynic that I have ever known in my life. I’m not sure that cynicism is a skill that would work very well in therapy. After his sixth birthday he never believed or trusted anything that anybody said to him.