July 3rd. Traditionally the day Montpelier observes July 4th. The town was awash with tourist families decked out in t-shirts, shorts 'n' sandals, ice cream and soda got consumed in impressive quantities, at times the smell of meat on barbecues seemed ubiquitous.
Unlike last year, I did not work as a volunteer for the parade today. I did go hang about, however, camera in hand, as this year's marchers showed up and the whole goofy, sprawling, wonderful procession pulled itself together, lurching slowly into motion. A genuine scene, including all kinds of people representing all kinds of organizations, some political, some humanitarian, some just there to make noise and have some fun. Amid all the noise and motion could be seen:
earthy political sloganeering,
patriotic glitz,
distressed barnyard fowl,
people in kilts,
people in lederhosen,
cryptic messages,
unicycles galore,
and as always, Shriners on go-karts. (Genteel enough, in this case, to stop for wayward pedestrians.)
España, te echo de menos.
rws 8:55 PM [+]
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