What is it about a parade? This question came up the other day in a conversation that I had with someone. It actually made me stop and think. What is it about a parade?
In the town I grew up in, we had the Timber Carnival. This annual event happened the first week of July every year. Four days of logging events, fireworks, a carnival, and a parade. The parade consisted of every logging outfit within a hundred miles polishing up their best log truck, loading it with the biggest logs they could find, and parading in a line down main street. Mix in a few marching bands, floats holding the boy scouts and campfire girls, and the Shriners on their little red convertible cars. More than anything, this parade brought our community together to celebrate the backbone of the industry that employed our dads and our granddads.
I have so many memories of the Timber Carnival. The red and white gingham shirts we wore, the night we pierced my sister’s ears with the back of a Timber Carnival button, sitting on a blanket watching the log rolling events until the sun went down and the fireworks started.
The Timber Carnival no longer exists, along with the logging industry. I honestly can’t remember the last year that the parade was held. This time last year, the last of the big mills closed in my hometown. My generation was the last to walk through those doors, the same doors their fathers and grandfathers walk through every day for thirty years before they retired.
Sorry, I got a little side-tracked. Back to the question of what it is about a parade. It’s about a community coming together to celebrate something they have in common. Here, we have the the Snowflake Celebration that runs the first week of December. It includes a gingerbread baking contest, a tree decorating display to raise money for charity, and the headline of the week, the Snowflake Parade. Thousands of people turn out, rain or shine, snow or not, to watch. Last year, it was –2 degrees at parade time. This year, it was a little warmer, but it rained as soon as the parade started.
You gotta get there early to pick out your spot. Here Dusty and I are holding down the fort. By the time the parade started, the crowd was four people deep all the way down Main Street.
The parade always kicks off with the Snowflake mile. Runners dressed in all sorts of costumes, some wearing only Santa boxer shorts, run the mile parade route.
Everyone gets excited when the motorcycle cops come by, signifying the official starts of the parade.
There are still the boy scouts.
The marching bands.
The local celebrity new anchor.
The junior hockey team.
Santa riding in a sleigh on top of a fire truck.
Ok, I am really not sure why Jimmy Neutron was there, or why his float looks like a giant phallic symbol.
The debut of our new baseball team mascot, Tater. Again, not everything in a parade makes sense.
And what parade wouldn’t be complete without the Shriners in their little red convertible cars.
So, what is it about a parade? It's about a community coming together to celebrate itself. It’s about showing the pride you have for that community. It’s about making memories that twenty-five years later you will remember like it was yesterday.
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