Parade Atmosphere
Today I am grateful for a clean house (and having the time to clean it.) I am also grateful to have been a parade participant yesterday.
There's something about a parade atmosphere that is just fun and energizing. And it's not something I observe or participate in that often in a given year, so the novelty makes it interesting as well. Our local community held our annual community celebration this weekend, with a key event being the parade. Our son's 4-H group volunteers to help out a local creamery by walking the parade route and handing out free milk.
Yesterday started out cool and with some needed rain. But it dried out in time for parade-goers to get set up, and it warmed up, but nothing like earlier this past week. The conditions were great, which doesn't always happen in mid-July in Minnesota.
Our job included riding in the back of a refrigerated truck with numerous crates of milk for a few blocks to the staging area. We got a ride back with all the empty crates after the parade. The ride was just a few blocks, but it gave me a different view of the main drag through our town, and it gave some of the 4-H members the fun of waving out the back at the cars behind us.
When we reached the staging area, we had plenty of time to wait before the parade began. Darcy and I had some friendly conversations with other 4-H parents, and took a short walk together. I wandered around a bit on my own too, and enjoyed hearing/observing our high school band warming up, as well as some bagpipers, a mariachi band, and a couple of dance troupes. I appreciated my senses of sight and sound as I took in these preparations. I appreciated the talented musicians who would be entertaining hundreds.
We were in the first third of the 100 + parade entries, so we got moving pretty quickly after the parade started. It's not a long parade route, about 12 blocks, but I still appreciated the exercise provided by the walking and the carrying of milk. Sam seemed to be enjoying his job as well, and had fun with some of his fellow 4-H members. Who doesn't like giving out free stuff?
All in all, a parade provided a parade of gratitude.
There's something about a parade atmosphere that is just fun and energizing. And it's not something I observe or participate in that often in a given year, so the novelty makes it interesting as well. Our local community held our annual community celebration this weekend, with a key event being the parade. Our son's 4-H group volunteers to help out a local creamery by walking the parade route and handing out free milk.
Yesterday started out cool and with some needed rain. But it dried out in time for parade-goers to get set up, and it warmed up, but nothing like earlier this past week. The conditions were great, which doesn't always happen in mid-July in Minnesota.
Our job included riding in the back of a refrigerated truck with numerous crates of milk for a few blocks to the staging area. We got a ride back with all the empty crates after the parade. The ride was just a few blocks, but it gave me a different view of the main drag through our town, and it gave some of the 4-H members the fun of waving out the back at the cars behind us.
When we reached the staging area, we had plenty of time to wait before the parade began. Darcy and I had some friendly conversations with other 4-H parents, and took a short walk together. I wandered around a bit on my own too, and enjoyed hearing/observing our high school band warming up, as well as some bagpipers, a mariachi band, and a couple of dance troupes. I appreciated my senses of sight and sound as I took in these preparations. I appreciated the talented musicians who would be entertaining hundreds.
We were in the first third of the 100 + parade entries, so we got moving pretty quickly after the parade started. It's not a long parade route, about 12 blocks, but I still appreciated the exercise provided by the walking and the carrying of milk. Sam seemed to be enjoying his job as well, and had fun with some of his fellow 4-H members. Who doesn't like giving out free stuff?
All in all, a parade provided a parade of gratitude.
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