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If there could be more events in one weekend, I don’t know how…..starting with the Kidsfest Parade, also two days of Starr-Gennett celebration, and Downtown booths of all kinds, then over to the Wayne County Historical Museum’s Heritage Days, a Red Devil football game Friday night and an Earlham football game Saturday (which they Won! – a historical event in itself), not to mention events up at the Depot District and Canal Days over at Cambridge City! And I’ve probably forgotten some. Who sez you have to go out of town for entertainment?

There’s probably more kinds of people in this kind of parade and a wider spectrum of ages, income, and social status than any other event the whole year. It’s good news, really.

The kickoff event for me was the Kidsfest Parade. I haven’t been in a parade since the same one last year. Oh yes, I said, I can walk the mile and a half. Have to be in it, because our Third Grade Academy kids are marching. I’ll walk right along with them. Well….about three blocks later, a kind fellow offered me a ride – and I was ready. Ahhhhh! Sitting down in a moving car is so satisfying.

And that provided a brand-new experience. I can’t remember ever sitting in a car in a parade while bystanders watched. I suddenly realized I was supposed to wave to them. Question: Why do people in parade cars wave to people along the way? You don’t know any of them, generally speaking. Are you glad to see them? Probably not. The only thing I know is – if you wave to them, they’ll wave back. So I waved; they waved, and we all acted as if we were having a good time.

They say everybody loves a parade. Well, that’s mostly true. They seem to bring out the best in people. Everybody puts on their uniform – police, military, band, dancing, fraternal, smiles (politicians), frowns (motorcyclists – I wish they weren’t so loud), and our kids wore their “Readers Are Leaders” shirts. It’s all sort of a form of advertising, isn’t it? The mayor was “out of uniform” directing traffic at the busy intersection at 13th & West Main. Fortunately, she didn’t get hit.

The weather could not have been better. The only flaw might have been one item in the Line of March. We were tooling along just fine when I noticed our kiddies swerving over to the right of the street. Then I saw the reason: Our animal friends up front had left some calling cards. It recalled something “Doc” Cutter once said. Doc was one of our better mayors a few mayors ago. He once said, “The only thing I learned as mayor was – when you have a parade, put the Girl Scouts in front of the horse patrol.”

–Vic Jose

Vic Jose :: Sep.13.2009 :: Uncategorized ::

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