We have spent the last few days (since Friday) without and then with and then without and then with power. It seems that the power is here to stay which makes me ridiculously giddy considering it is sweltering outside at the mo'. We opted out of going to the fireworks. No one was particularly motivated. Instead, I am listening to them going off all around my neighborhood and I can hear the finale of the major production at the high school as I am typing. Americans are definitely as crazy as the Brits are on Guy Fawkes Night, but at least they don't start shooting off the darn noisemakers a week or two in advance! However, in my town, people do start putting chairs out on the sidewalks at least a week and usually two weeks ahead of time to reserve their curbside spot for the annual 4th of July Parade which goes through the heart of downtown. I have pretty much always found this to be a seriously huge nuisance and have never felt the need to reserve a spot as we easily find one five minutes before the parade begins and we do not mind standing. Truly annoying, but I guess it has its charm in a perverse way. If you want to see a newscast of the phenomena, click here.
Anyway, the 4th of July in our town begins in the morning with a lot of kids' events like a lollipop hunt at the high school and a bike decorating contest and a spoon race. We used to do all of that, including the Firecracker 10K, but our entire family has aged and moved on from that. I don't miss it although it was fun when we participated. Then at 3:00 pretty much right on the dot, the parade begins.
There are bands.
This is the Baltimore Ravens Band.
This is the high school Steel Drum Band.
This is a band from Canada. They are probably dying in the heat.
There are fancy cars.
There were also a variety of military vehicles but I didn't get a snap of them. Many (probably all) of them belong to my neighbor down the road and his friends. And there are all sorts of civic groups who do floats. The parade lasts at least an hour, usually longer.
People come from all over to see the parade and park anywhere they can. Our street is rarely so congested.
Our town places flags on pretty much everyone's front yard and people decorate for the 4th
including us but I forgot to take a photo of our house and it is very dark now. Maybe I will post one tomorrow once the videos are sorted.
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