I'm a sucker for parades. In large part I think that sentiment comes from some of my most early memories being parade occasions. There's nostalgic flickers of wandering through my Aunt Geneva's house and out to the street to watch all the wonderful equipment and floats that used to make up The Morton Logger's Jubilee during its heyday when I was a kid. Giant loads of export fir logs and huge yarders rolled down the street.
So, with that bit of Kat-lore explained, when I got a text from my dear friend that her kiddo was walking in the Athol Daze parade this past Saturday, it probably comes as no surprise to know that yes, I was there lol!
Her daughter, my little buddy I affectionately refer to as Chips, is doing cheerleading this year for the first time and was marching with her squad. I couldn't wait to cheer her on!
We arrived at my friend's house right in the middle of Athol, Idaho with plenty of time to spare before the parade began at nine. My pal had already dropped off our little cheerleader a bit earlier over at the staging area for the parade at the elementary school, so we when she arrived back we took that as our cue to wander over to the side of Highway 54.
The Highway is closed and re-routed for the parade, which in the past was no big deal as the parade only lasted about ten minutes or so. This year things were a bit different.
To start with, thanks to our population boom, the parade was quite massive compared to its humble origins. It lasted a whole half an hour!
But it was full of such fun things to gaze upon! Classic cars, fun floats, restored retro campers, horses, and even a loaded logging truck! My parade loving form was elated!
And pretty much every vehicle and marcher threw candy to the plethora of bag clutching younglings lining the road. One of those youngins, a toddler of maybe eighteen months offered a bit more excitement than we wanted.
You see, in my former career as a librarian, I used to march in a couple of parades every year with the bookmobile. My job was candy hurler and crowd control. Kids lose their faculties when candy is about, and so we made sure we kept them away from the mutli-ton rolling vehicle.
Not everyone in the parade had crowd control, and not every parent was on top of spawn restraint. There was this gigantic custom diesel that had a UTV in the back and on top of it. We are talking about a lifted to the sky, coal-rolling, my truck payment is probably four figures type of custom beast. As the truck was rolling along quite slowly, the little toddler ran right in front of it, like within six inches of getting crushed. I am so glad the driver and his co-pilot were paying attention. I bet the parents of the little dart-and-dasher were thankful too.
The toddler was re-leashed.
Another exciting bit about the parade was a bit more on the political side. We have a certain politician that is running for governor of our state that is nationally known due to his engagement with the federal government in Oregon a few years back. An interlude that ended with his father being shot and killed by the authorities. Personally, I don't care if politicians walk in a parade, I love free speech and all that, but one of this particular creature's acolytes had a bull horn and walked through the streets bellowing an Alex Jones-esque oratory diatribe of evil Deep State proportions. As they walked by the celebratory, community-oriented vibe dimmed into an awkward communal feeling. Now, I am no fan of too much government, but I did find it interesting that these so-called patriots had multiple, incredibly expensive vehicles at their disposal, and let's not get started with a cost dissection of all their tactical gear. Donations must be good.
Anyway, my bud hollered, Hey look! It's the local cult leader.
Finally, my dear little Chips and her crew marched by. She is seven and was so focused on executing her cheer, until she heard us cheering for her. She broke into a huge, beaming smile and waved at us before remembering where she was and went right back to cheering. It was so cute!
Chip's little brother, an awesome almost two year old who can speak in complete sentences, had more candy than he could even conceptualize by the middle of the parade. Some of the entrants were throwing Otter pops, so when Squish, as we call him, ran up to me with a popsicle in one hand and about ten Tootsie Rolls in the other, I couldn't help but smile and gratefully take what was offered with true enthusiasm.
My hubs tried to get Squish to run out and grab a road apple that the horses had left in their wake. He thought he was pretty clever with that play. I just rolled my eyes a bit and made sure he had some Twizzlers. Somehow he ended up with a popsicle too, big kid that he is lol!
And without too much more excitement, the parade finally came to an end. I was so happy to get to experience my dear little friend's first parade that she marched in, and by the way she was cheering like a pro, I don't think it will be her last馃槉
And as most of the time, all of the images in this post were taken on the author's probably going to be at many more parades in its lifetime iPhone.
