Watching the Parade Go By

First comes the police cars, lights flashing, escorting several solemn faced veterans carrying flags. Everyone stands as they pass by; the kids know not to be looking for candy just yet. After them comes the fire trucks; making everyone jump each time they sound their horns. Then, when the large trucks full of waving firemen passes by, the real parade begins.

What is it about parades, anyway? They all follow the same patterns, with the same types of floats; and if you go to the same community parade for several years you probably know each float by heart. So what brings people to these things year after year? If you ask just about any kid, they’ll say it’s the candy (that would have been my reply just a few years ago.) Whatever is the case, I know that no matter how many parades I see, I look forward to them every year.

This year I’ve gotten the chance to go to two of them; the one at our old home, that I’ve gone to for as long as I can remember, and one at our new place (I don’t want to even talk about the amount of candy my little sister got from both of them!) After the parade here in our new home, a thought struck me; for all the years we’ve lived in our old community, I never knew a single person in the yearly parade; but after living in our new home for less than a year now, I know a large number of people in this parade. 

Once, when I was a lot younger, I was in a parade. It was for my church’s VBS and I found the whole thing kind of boring. I wasn’t interested in looking out at other people, my cheeks hurt from smiling so much, and I was tired of waving. Plus, one of my best friends was on the opposite side of the float with a large, paper Mache volcano between us (the theme for that year’s VBS was “Lava-Lava Island.") So now when I see a little girl with a drooping smile, I completely understand. I prefer to stay on the spectator’s side of the street.

Note: all the above pictures are from the most recent parade at our new home