The Fourth of Jooooo-ly

Oh, we live in a small town.  It is a requirement of every small town, I believe, that they have a Fourth of July parade, isn't that correct? Well, this is no exception.  Now, I am not a huge fan of parades.  There is something about the anticipation mounting as you catch your first drumbeat off in the distance that makes me very nervous, but on Saturday I was convinced to attend the small town parade for two reasons.  One, I had high hopes of a marching band.  Two, members of my family would be parading in the parade.  Anika and I dropped off Eliza and Dan at the gathering spot for participants on the east side of town, and then high-tailed it to the west side, knowing that the shady streetside spots might fill up quickly.  Well, if you look beyond the piratey face of the four-year-old below, you might notice that the streets are empty. So are the sidewalks.  It was like this for a loooooong time.

Long enough for more piratey faces...
Some mango chewing...
And a complete make-over from pirate into...Canadian tourist?
FINALLY the drumbeat began down the street, and the parade appeared.  There was the...Redcoat? Um, leading the parade with his drum....
There were the tractors, bright and shiny...
There were the beauty queens from the even smaller town just north of us...
And finally there was Dan, with the accordian, oompahpahing away!!!

And Eliza sitting in the back of a pickup truck, singing her heart out! All the "purples" are with the cast of Oliver.
And here is Susan, the Chinese OU student who had been in town for all of three days and was TOTALLY THRILLED to have happened upon this incredible parade.  She kept saying, in her broken English, "So lucky! So lucky!".  She asked me to email her pictures, as her phone was out of juice.

That was it folks!!! Alas, no marching band.  It had me thinking about the best parades I've ever viewed, and I think I can narrow it down to two:  the Pride parade in Seattle was by far the wildest, most entertaining couple of hours I've spent watching a parade, and the parade (was it London Bridge Days, maybe?) in Lake Havasu City, Arizona, where I was visiting my dad.  The actual London Bridge is THERE, folks! I know, you thought it was in London, but it has been moved, through a modern miracle, to the middle of the Arizona desert.  I can't think about this too much because it disturbs me, but the best part of the parade was this large group of small children who walked by in formation, wearing London Bridge hats. I can't imagine you'd see that anywhere else...