Everyone Loves a Parade

I stand on the sidelines of our town parade. A three-year-old kid standing beside me sports a Mohawk hairdo spiked to about four inches. His parents have multiple tattoos and body piercings. How is this kid going to rebel?

About a hundred pom-pom girls strut down the street wearing pink dresses behind a live Ronald McDonald, the most famous celebrity in the parade. I sat by him once in plastic.

Our honorable Mayor rides by sitting atop a convertible just ahead of the Beauty queen, a subtle political move. The honorable mayor is later dunked in a tank at the Carnival.

A dissonant band marches by with lines approximating the letter “S”. They are playing something akin to Stars and Stripes Forever. There follow 89 more entries: A firetruck sounding a siren periodically; The boy scouts proudly displaying merit badges; various church floats beckoning bystanders into their flocks; Several police motorcyclists ride by waving and acting friendly for a change; A sixty plus softball team trudges by on crutches, with bandages on different parts of their anatomy; The Salvation Army goes by with a small brass band and jingling their bells; several horse groups go by with two guys scooping up after them; decorated antique cars go by honking old-sounding horns; Chi Wawa breeders with ribbons and bows in the dog’s hair; The Tow Low Trailer Gang who have been on many pig-on-a-spit outings; The Johnson and Sons Funeral Home goes by in a black hearse with a sign saying Since 1900, the implication: we’re still waiting for you. A three-jet-plane grand finale flies over! Fantastic!

For one shining, Camelot occasion, all the diverse elements of our town are engaged in common cause, moving in the same direction, and everybody is waving at everybody!