I love my small town’s annual parade for the Bradbury feel. People sign up and march to say “we are this community”. I think everything one needs to know about this town can be learned by watching the parade.
The veterans on a khaki truck with a rusted machine gun mounted on top. Primary school with whales. Preschool with sharks. School district supervisor. Dancing school with flags. Congress candidate. Fire department. Ballet school. Primary school with whales. Silent middle-aged people carrying portraits of young dead people – heroin overdose prevention society. Cheerleaders. Garbage collectors on garbage trucks. Road repair people on a bulldozer. Water department handing out stuffies. Sheriff looking like Police Barbie. Jiu-jitsu school. Kung-fu school with a giant drum and cymbals. Lion dancers. Lyons with a giant lion stuffie on the trunk. Middle school with whales. White people in funny hats – Shriners. Elementary school with sharks. Preschool with whales and soap bubbles. Summer camp with whales. After-school camp with candy. Chinese people in funny hats – Falun Gong. School. Pirates. Librarians with whales. School with whales. Bikers on motorcycles with drums and whales. Bikers on bicycles. Marching band in cowboy outfits. Marching band in charro outfits with capes. Marching band in hussar outfits. Marching band in hoodies. Teachers with whales and sharks. Mayor with a county supervisor candidate and a big hat. Fire department again. Marching drum band. Daycare with whales. VW-bus with people in funny hats – grief counseling. City council candidate on a vintage Cadillac. School board candidate on a bike with support group and soap bubbles. Beach clean-up society. String quartet. School. School. School. School.