On Parades and the Crazy Traditions

Today is July 3rd. That means that it is time for the Fourth of July Parade in our town. It is a nice parade and there are organizations ranging from bands to dance crews to bible study marching down the street, showing their stuff.

I like the parade because for the most part, I don't really know what goes on in our town until they all come with their posters and candy to share (or buckets to collect). For instance, there are some fine bands, banjo players, dance crews, and clubs galore that I had no idea existed. Having been on both sides of watching and marching, I like both which fulfills my spectrum of the parade experience.

Now I understand the process and tradition of the parade, lining up, eating, drinking, collecting candy, etc. What I don't understand--and find equally entertaining as a result--is the unspoken tradition of the pre-parade, also known as-- The Stakeout.

I'm sure I don't have to explain what it means to stake out your territory. Well, (for our parade at least) families do just that. They come onto the boulevard (at who knows what time) with their blankets, chairs, trailers, coolers, stakes, rope, and caution tape and block out their space for the parade. I will admit that over the years the tradition has been cut back and restricted because of crazy people taking up space that they can't account for or use when the parade actually comes around.

So the day before the parade the boulevard is covered with many shapes and sizes of tape and rope--all for the sake of a good seat at the parade. As part of the other population, our family has never marked "our territory" and yet every year we manage to find a space to sit that allows us to see the people prancing by.

Another unspoken tradition in our parade involves the kids. Apparently the 4th of July holiday is the second Halloween. As someone who walked in parades, I saw kids come up to me with bags of candy asking me to put candy in their bags. Sure, let's give the kid with a bag of candy more of the same. However, I understand that there are some safety benefits to keeping a bag.

When I was little, the kids ran to the candy like they had never seen a tootsie roll before in their lives. Kids became vicious, snarling at the people walking with candy and telling them to throw candy in their direction (because clearly they didn't get enough). Now that they have the bags, I suppose that the angry sugar crazed children would no longer be as demanding. We'll leave that for future study. Thus we have another unspoken tradition for the parade scene.

I love traditions because if they're any good, they will never go away. And as much as some of these traditions are not the most humanitarian or moral, we keep them, accept them, and tweak them as needed.

Happy 4th Everyone!