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Parade parade
Spring [1] and I recieved an email from a friend telling us about the Holiday
Parade [2] in Coral Springs. [3] Since we live down the road a few miles, we
figured we'd go and see it.
We left around 5:00 pm, ran an errand and grabbed a bite to eat, and drove to
the parade. We parked about half a mile away since I figured we might not get
any closer and there was a handy parking lot right there. It was a pleasant
walk.
We talked about small town parades vs. big city parades and I mentioned that
the last parade I remember attending was in Brevard, NC [4] as a very small
kid, and that was a small town parade, down the main street, which is lined
with two story buildings with mom-n-pop shops on the ground floor and
apartments above. Big city parades are those with huge floats with the air
filled with confetti and thousands upon thousands of people waving and
cheering from the sidewalks and windows of tall buildings.
This is Coral Springs. So suburban it hurts. It lacks the charm of small
towns and it definitely isn't a big city. We may be seeing a parade, but it
isn't a parade parade.
We sat around for maybe an hour or so waiting for the parade to start. The
parade itself was going to be on the east bound side of Sample and school
busses, with police escourts, where driving back and forth along the west
bound side dropping off people and participants. Street vendors were selling
cheap inflatable toys, water and soda at extortionistic prices.
“That's what we should do,” I said. “Get some water, some soda, get an orange
vest and walk around selling drinks and makes lots of money.”
“But if the cops stop and ask for your permit, you'll be busted,” said
Spring.
“You really think the cops stop these people? They're pretty busy escourting
busses around.”
“They probably do. Or the company that got the contract will know you aren't
with them and ask the cops to check up on you.”
“That's easy then—I'd have a partner along to run interference. A cop comes
up to me, the partner would then come up and distract the cop while I slip
away.”
“And what about the interference? How will he get away?”
“I'll disguise myself, cause some interference so he can get away.”
“That seems to be an awfully large amount of work to make some bucks,” she
said.
I pondered this. Yes, it did seem like quite a bit of work. “Might as well
just mug the vendors then. Easier that way.” She agreed.
It was 7:30 pm and the parade still hadn't started. We debated about going
back to the car and getting the folding love seat stashed in the trunk, but I
said why not walk towards the starting postion of the parade (on the west end
of Sample) and once we see the parade, stop there and watch it. She agreed
and we started walking west along Sample.
About a half mile or so up the road we saw that the parade had started
winding its way down Sample, so we picked a spot and sat down.
The highlight of the parade were the Firefighter Calendar Girls. On the back
of the firetruck was a large sign saying “We need loving homes!” but while
Spring and I wouldn't mind giving a loving home to the Firefighter Calendar
Girls, we both suspected the sign were for the dalmations being paraded
alongside the fire truck.
There were also the obligatory school marching bands (but a puzzling
selection of schools though—about half the schools present were in Coral
Springs but some were from as far away as Sunrise and Pompano, but not
Coconut Creek, which is next to Coral Springs and where I went to school) and
the various groups of animal lodges and cheesy floats and blantant
advertising banners being paraded down Sample.
Over all we had an enjoyable time.
But it still wasn't a parade parade.
[1]
http://www.springdew.com/
[2]
http://www.ci.coral-springs.fl.us/holidayparade/index.htm
[3]
http://www.ci.coral-springs.fl.us/
[4]
http://www.brevardnc.com/
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