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A Good Fourth
Jul. 5th, 2005 06:32 amWoke up early, picked up fixings for the Killer Garlic Bread of Communal Death (to ![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
paleologa's usual chant of "use more garlic! Use more garlic!" I think we used enough garlic this time.). Then, it was off to the parade.
Yes, we went to the parade. Beginning with a stream of classic and antique cars (delightful) and various local floats (the Indiaan Princesess, a father/daughter group, were adorable, with the girls soaking the crowd -- and especially their fathers -- with Super Soakers), and Yogi Berra as the Parade Marshal.
You know you're in a Blue State when the ACLU, PFLAG, and local library volunteers get 5x the cheers the Knights of Columbus receive (their 'one nation under god' banner had much to do with that, no doubt). It was sad to see so few military personnel joining in the parade -- mainly because they're all still overseas on active duty. All we have left are the old men and women even Bush can't call up -- and vanishingly few of them. But they got their standing salutes, as they've earned. And there was a group of teenage pilots-in-training who were earnestly determined to carry the flag, as it were. Overall, a good parade, and seeing the local teachers' group march by, with one woman picking up and hugging kids as she went, because her (very young) students kept running out to join her... priceless.
Then off to the usual barbeque, where we ate far too much grilled meat and pastry and wine, then lazed about until it was time to go see the sparklers and boomers.
(our usual locale was doing a laser show instead, because of construction nearby, so we went off in search of an alternate site, which came through with just perfectly lovely sparklers and enough booms even for the boom-fans in our group, ending with a fantabulous finale filled with green and purple and yellow and red and gold and indigo sparks.
Proving that even if the family is cranky with each other, you can still get together amicably for birthday cake and singing. At least for a little while.
paleologa's usual chant of "use more garlic! Use more garlic!" I think we used enough garlic this time.). Then, it was off to the parade.Yes, we went to the parade. Beginning with a stream of classic and antique cars (delightful) and various local floats (the Indiaan Princesess, a father/daughter group, were adorable, with the girls soaking the crowd -- and especially their fathers -- with Super Soakers), and Yogi Berra as the Parade Marshal.
You know you're in a Blue State when the ACLU, PFLAG, and local library volunteers get 5x the cheers the Knights of Columbus receive (their 'one nation under god' banner had much to do with that, no doubt). It was sad to see so few military personnel joining in the parade -- mainly because they're all still overseas on active duty. All we have left are the old men and women even Bush can't call up -- and vanishingly few of them. But they got their standing salutes, as they've earned. And there was a group of teenage pilots-in-training who were earnestly determined to carry the flag, as it were. Overall, a good parade, and seeing the local teachers' group march by, with one woman picking up and hugging kids as she went, because her (very young) students kept running out to join her... priceless.
Then off to the usual barbeque, where we ate far too much grilled meat and pastry and wine, then lazed about until it was time to go see the sparklers and boomers.
(our usual locale was doing a laser show instead, because of construction nearby, so we went off in search of an alternate site, which came through with just perfectly lovely sparklers and enough booms even for the boom-fans in our group, ending with a fantabulous finale filled with green and purple and yellow and red and gold and indigo sparks.
Proving that even if the family is cranky with each other, you can still get together amicably for birthday cake and singing. At least for a little while.
