When I was little, my dad was enthralled with parades and would drag us to each and every parade that came by our area. If we couldn't be there he would grab the movie camera and make sure there was a home movie of it to watch. And he would Make us watch it! Whenever a football game paused for half-time entertainment (in those days it was all bands..and on black and white TV)we had to stop whatever we were doing and watch...even my mom)...for he screamed and yelled, you see.
I like a good parade with music and well done floats. I even participated in my small town's local yearly parade when I was a senior in high school, working with our local chapter of Internat'l Order of Rainbow for Girls. As I've gotten older, I've enjoyed the Portland Rose Parade, Portland Starlight Parade, and laughed and enjoyed smaller parades when I lived in OH.
Now I'm in CO and live in a medium sized town with parades. They had one on the 4th of July which I did not attend because of the HEAT, but last night I attended their Christmas Light Parade. People started saving their spots at 2 p.m...the parade was 5 p.m. and by the time I got there at 3:30, people had chairs lined up 2 rows deep and had started to settle in for the evening. By the time the parade started, people were 5-6 rows deep for 7 blocks. I'm supposing a lot of people came because the weather was good, people needed free events since the economy is bad, and it was something for the kids.
It never ceases to amaze me what people will decorate so they can participate in a parade. I expected some really nice stuff considering all the kinds of lights and the technology available...even here.
In my opinion, however, it turned out to be an advertisement of the businesses in the area and of the police and fire departments, blaring their horns and sirens enough to cause one's ears to ring. About every 5 vehicles was a fire truck or ER vehicle with lights on it. At least half of them had lights that looked like the lights were just slapped on. ATV's had their decorations and there was one horse pulled wagon. The floats pulling lots of people on board were pulled by 18 wheeler cabs. I was surprised there were not more horses in the parade. What's a western parade without horses? Maybe some of you horse aficionados can tell me why...like the horses wouldn't do well at night with all the blinking lights, or something. there was only one horse drawn carriage.
I'm not sure what the exact theme of the parade was, but it had something to do with 'Candyland', as each float was about the same...a gingerbread house, or 'peppermint forest'. And although there is a very special candy factory here, I did not see them represented. There were marching bands from the 3 high schools in the area and a couple of middle school bands who played from their places on 18 wheeler flat-beds. I was told there were 100 floats, but I think there were about 65 or so. At #54 we pretty much had enough and our feet were aching, so we headed toward a bagel/coffee shop 3 blocks away. By the time we got there the parade was over and people dispersed.
Here are some pictures of the event.
