I must confess, I don't care about parades. At all. Maybe it's because I spent a great deal of my childhood marching in parades, both for the Robinette's (I was a baton twirler) and for the Templeton Middle School marching band (I played the clarinet and the flute). Once I got to high school, I quit the band because it was mandatory that we had to march, and I'd had enough marching.
On the way home from work yesterday I took note of all the people along the Menomonee Falls parade route who were scouting out their spot for tonights parade. It almost made me wonder if the parade was last night, instead of tonight. This morning all the stakes and string and caution tape and lawn chairs, and other marking devices were there. My daughter, who is seven, asked me: What is going on? Why are all these people in areas that are marked off with caution tape?? And I had to explain to her that it wasn't police tape in this instance, it was areas that people were marking as their own for the parade which is later tonight.
And this is what she said to me: But it's just a parade.
My point exactly. It's just a parade. I don't get it. What ever happened to showing up for the parade right before the parade started? Where the kids sit on the curb as it passes by, and the adults stand on the sidewalk? Does that not happen anymore?
