Today was not a work day, but yesterday was another parade day for the Bookmobile. Once again, we drove for a considerable time in order to wait at the staging ground for another small-town parade. I don't intend to denigrate small towns. It's just the fact of the matter. Many readers would consider ALL of the towns in our district "small," so I just want to make it clear that this was not a large community at all even by the standards of the region.
In our last parade, we were right behind the honor guard at the front. This time, we did not go first, so I got a chance to see some of the other parade participants. There were some old John Deere tractors, military jeeps, and some classic cars from the '50s. A couple in a restored Ford Model A waved in recognition when they saw me here, since we had met and chatted last weekend. Parade buddies!
I need to backtrack a bit before getting to the parade though. My job was again to walk in front of the bookmobile and toss candy to the kids in the crowd.
The local branch library manager stopped by with her daughter, who was to join us in the parade. This young lady was old enough to have been in several parades before, and had marched with her Girl Scout troop on other occasions, so I was not concerned about her participation abilities. Another librarian also joined us shortly after as well.
But then, they arrived.
Two rambunctious boys were somehow foisted upon us as "volunteers" by parents who I am now certain were looking for any excuse to abandon their hellions and escape for parts unknown.
This was not known to library staff.
This also occurred when we still had a good 45 minutes to wait for the parade to start. Needless to say, these kids were problematic the whole time. They were apparently not interested in reading at all, and preferred roughhousing in our book bus.
Once the parade began moving, we went outside with our bags of candy, ready to walk in the parade. Unlike last week, we were not in front. The natives were getting restless, indeed, as we watched the aforementioned tractors and classic cars parade by. At last, though, we were waved into line.
It quickly became apparent that these boys had no idea how to behave themselves out here, either. They goofed around incessantly, even attempting to climb onto the trailer of the vehicle ahead of us. They hurled their allotted candy quite aggressively into the crowd despite repeated warnings to gently toss underhand at peoples' feet instead. And they could not walk like they had a purpose.
We were stuck with these lethargic yet aggressive hellions for what seemed like a mile, although I am certain it was less than half that. This parade route was longer than last week's, and the crowd was larger.
At any rate, we survived. The discussion on the ride home centered around setting some official boundaries for future parade participation with our vehicle by locals. There WILL be a vetting process from here on.
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