QUICK JAUNT TO THE SANTA PARADE

Today is the annual Santa Parade in my town. 

I keep saying that I'm going to go every year, and then I don't go.  I do the same thing today, hemming and hawing about going, until I hear the neighbors next door prepping their little one to go to the parade.  I peek outside in time to see an empty float fly by on its way to the parade line, so I figure I should probably just go at this point, especially since it's a five minute walk (if even) from my house. 

I get there about ten minutes before the parade is supposed to start and find the streets relatively empty.  I'm surprised at how few people are here, and I stake out a huge spot in front of one of the banks.  I don't have anyone near me for about fifty feet on either side.  I stick myself between a lamp post and a sign post, a space of about six feet in width, figuring no families will encroach on this space (I am correct) as the streets finally fill up just after one o'clock.

Of course, the parade starts late, which isn't anything unusual. 

There are the usual dance companies and the usual marching bands.  Two Celtic bands march through - Catamount and Clan McPherson.  There are lots of scout troops, which is nice to see, and the Historical Society has people in period costume (not going to lie -- that looked like fun).  Lots of candy is thrown, but they all, even the fire department, avoid giving candy to me.  I must look fat in my super-puffy coat with my post-Thanksgiving figure underneath.

The floats are decent this year, although there aren't many.  I see the Polar Express float that boogied past my house and sent me on my mission to see the parade.  The floats have sentimental value to me.  When I was in seventh or eighth grade, my school made a float (giant Frosty the Snowman) that won the parade contest.  It was great except that it was super-cold that day, and my job was to hold the chicken wire Frosty into place, so my hands were frozen solid.  Even worse, for winning the float contest, we had to go over to the nursing home and show off our float.  Yay!  We win .... freeze even longer!

Santa is always at the end of the parade.  As I watch him go by on the back of the firetruck, I can hear a wave of small voices cheering, "Santa! Santa!" and that makes me smile because this is what it's all about.  I like the bands and the floats, but for the kiddos, it's all about Santa and the magic of the season.

I walk for a short while with the parade, getting ahead of Santa by about a minute or two.  The parade disperses in front of my daughter's house, but she isn't outside watching nor are her neighbors, so I head home, avoiding all of the coffee shops on my way, but cutting behind the church and through the cemetery to avoid the throngs of people weaving back toward their cars parked nearby. 

Even though it rained all morning, it's about forty-five degrees, which is fifty degrees warmer than it was three days ago, so it almost feels like spring is in the air, but it smells and looks like Christmas, and that's exactly what I came out for in the first place.