FROM WHERE I SIT  I Love a Parade! July 1, 2014 P.D. Spilseth

Grabbing lawn chairs, coffee cups and nibbles for the kids, every July Fourth we rush to our annual parade spot before ten in the morning.   Neighbors turn out annually with coffee and folding lawn chairs to meet at the prime parade spot on Casco Circle to watch our own Fourth of July kiddie parade.  

Dozens of kids, from parents carrying babies sporting flag t-shirts and red, white and blue bonnets, to kids who ride their bikes with the wheels strung with red, white, and blue crepe paper.  Handlebars have long, colorful streamers and flags waving in the breeze.  Little kids careen around the giant curve of Casco Circle on tricycles and others ride in little red wagons.  Some families ride on their lawn tractors.  A few years we’ve had a horse or two in the parade.

Patriotic music blares from big speakers set on a pickup’s flatbed.  Several moms make bars and cookies or rolls for the parade viewers.  We toss wrapped candy to the parade participants, who screech to a stop to collect the candy and check out treats on the card table.  They’re hungry; they’ve been riding almost a mile from the starting point of the parade; they need nourishment!  

Several moms wear red, blue and white T-shirts; dads have tall stovepipe hats like Uncle Sam or caps in appropriate Fourth of July colors. Everyone waves miniature flags, gifts of a local family selling real estate.  This annual parade is a Big Deal in my neighborhood.  Some folks return to their old neighborhood simply to see who’s in the parade and have a cup of coffee.

It’s tradition on the lake to see fireworks from several spots on our peninsula.  When darkness falls, neighbors with insect repellent walk down the hill to their docks either to launch boats to view fireworks on the Bay or to sit and watch from their docks.  Some submerge sweaty bodies in the lake, hoping to avoid the mosquitoes.  Everyone rushes outdoors to watch the colorful fireworks display exploding in the summertime sky from every direction.

Kids light sparklers to celebrate this Fourth of July holiday which honors the many freedoms we enjoy in this country.  Campfires are lit; we roast marshmallows and make s’mores with graham crackers, melting chocolate bars and gooey marshmallows.  I’m reminded of the campfires teenagers enjoyed on Halverson’s Point before houses were built there, eliminating our best summertime party spot.  

We loved parades in Glenwood, my hometown.  The Fourth of July parade featured marching uniformed veterans, the ladies auxiliary, and the Glenwood High School band.  It was always dreadfully hot!  As the honor guard marchers aged, I could see that it was tougher and tougher to squeeze into those uniforms from the war year.  But I’ll never forget the jaunty, creased caps and the ominous rifles.  Everyone stood as the flags passed and put their right hand over their heart, remembering the sacrifices our veterans had made to keep freedom throughout our land.

I still remember sweating in those sticky, hot, wool band uniforms we wore in the 60‘s and that visor hat that kept dropping into my eyes so I couldn’t read the music notes attached to my clarinet.  But I did enjoy marching in the Waterama parade later in July when FINALLY the band boosters purchased white trousers and blue and white striped t-shirts for band members.  I think we might have had a colorful orange or red bandana too…didn’t we?  I know we wore white bucks like Pat Boone, the popular Christian crooner of that era.  He was popular in the sixties, but probably not as popular as Elvis with his oily ducktail and swiveling hip action.

We had three summer parades when I was a kid: Memorial Day where veterans carried flags and shot off a gun salute over Lake Minnewaska; the Fourth of July parade; and the annual Waterama parade at the end of July with lots of marching bands, queens in one-piece swimsuits and stiffly sprayed hairdos, jazzy, rhythmic drum and bugle corps which crowds loved to follow, and politicians shaking hands with potential voters.  It was a busy summer back then.  I still love a good, old fashioned parade! 717 words