4rth of July Parade

We went to the local parade for the 4rth of July yesterday. I've never been a big parade fan, and wasn't excited about this one either. But the wife was all juiced up for it, and I figured C would love it.

Parking and finding a place to sit were hassle-free, so we started out well. Then came the start of the parade and seemingly every ambulance and fire truck within 40 miles. At first, C got really excited. But then the sirens started. They were 5 yards away, and had to be louder than Judas priest in their hey day. By the third one, C was curled up on my lap in the fetal position, holding my hands over his ears.

His attitude changed quickly though, as almost immediately after the fire trucks left, the candy started flowing. I don't recall the candy thing from the 3 parades I went to in my youth. But every other group chucked tootsie rolls or suckers at all the kids. For the next hour or so, C kept saying "I need more candy."

There were a couple odd moments in the parade. There was a group of 3 belly dancers. I always thought parades were for marching bands and politicians, but alas, it is now an appropriate arena for Belly Dancing. Once we got home, they became his favorite topic. "We saw belly buttons" and the topper: "Dats BOOBIES."










Another big hit with C were the tractors. He's a big fan of anything farm related at this stage, so he loved watching all the farm stuff go by.









I had two favorite moments. The first was watching the guy walking behind the horses with a shovel. He had a look on his face that said "What am I doing here? Damn, I should have studied more in High School."

The second was watching a dance troupe of teenagers walk by to a blaring dance remix cover of "Born in the U.S.A." Just the fact that that song was being played was a little ironic. But it was almost surreal when the guy came on (to a dance/techno beat) and sang the line "to go and kill the yellow man."