Parade

Saturday morning I whimsically ended up in Colfax with Owain. Becca and Charis were canning tomatoes, which reminded me that I wanted to fix the outdoor propane burner Chris found at the dump, as it leaks a bit at the burner connection.

My thought was check at the Cenex/Farmers Co-op in town and go to the park with Owain.

We pulled into town having listened to the beginning of the first song on Riding the Nuclear Tiger by Ben Allison a dozen times. Owain's request: "beginning again."

In the high school parking lot were parked ten different fire engines/trucks: antiques, hook and ladder, etc. I thought, "Cool, we will have to swing by and check them out. " Another block and I saw the road lined with opened, empty folding and camping chairs. If I hadn't seen it before, I would have thought the second coming had just happened.

We checked Cenex for the part - only high schoolers working on Saturday. The propane people were gone. There was one lone man sitting in his chair among the 1/2 mile of empty seats: Dick Peterson. His coffee steaming into the blue sky, we talked about where we lived: "up at Popple Creek in the Morning place." He told me the parade was at noon - an hour and forty to kill. We played at the park for an hour and came back to buy a slice of pizza and popcorn. We had some apples from our tree in the car. Eleven thirty and the sidewalks were filled with people in their chairs and others walking around. We found a three foot space on the curb with no chair or person and ate our snack.

The parade started with six four-wheelers driven by high schoolers throwing candy at everyone, followed by a police car, members of the national guard and army vehicles. They were blasting "Proud to be an American" on repeat.

On the middle of the half mile route, they stopped and we all stood for the National Anthem. Owain ran circles around my legs, holding my waist for balance. The guard and members stood stoic and still. The anthem ended and they continued marching down the street: lock jawed, eyes ahead, backs straight.

"I'm tired. Can we go home?" The parade had just started, but it was Owain's naptime. You never deny the rare moment Owain wants to go to sleep. As we walked to the car, the announcer talked about a local woman sitting in the back of a convertible on the parade route who lost her son in the war.

We headed out and came right into the army marching on the side streets past the route. They were still blasting Lee Greenwood and locked at marching attention, but nobody was watching but Owain and I.

A large hole fell between the marchers and an army hummer, and I pulled in to follow the truck blasting "Proud to be an American."

A block later and they still maintained formation, but then the people in the stereo truck threw loads of candy at five kids hanging by their four-wheelers. The kids screamed and scrambled to grab up their loot.

The marchers reached their army vehicle, broke formation and relaxed. At that instant the stereo truck sped up to be parallel to the guard marchers and pelleted them with candy. The guard marchers scooped the candy off the ground, laughing, and threw it back at the truck and each other. Ten seconds later they were in their vehicle, and we were all off to our preferred homes.