Happy Dependents Day!

Whew! What a day! This morning I took the kids to a neighborhood parade (which meant racing around, trying to get their bikes and faces decorated before 9:00 am), then I actually took them to the parade, came home at 10:15 or so, just in time for a phone call from a neighbor inviting the kids to "Slip-and-Slide" in her yard. Back home, into the bathtub for the kids (because Gwen is allergic to grass.) Now it is late for lunch, but there is a parade downtown at 2:00 pm ... so lunch downtown, and on to the parade! Then back home, then a trip to Food Lion (with my assistant Xavier) ... tonight's agenda includes searching for fireflies and watching the fireworks from our front yard ... I'll need a vacation after today!

But it was all fun. The parade around our neighborhood was fun for all, but for my kids (who were near the front) it was way too short. ("Is that all?") Of course, my kids have also come to associate parades with candy-throwing, so despite my warnings that this parade would not be like that, they were a little disappointed.

I have lived here twenty years and have never gone to any of the town parades ... but I did today. We go to the Fourth of July parade in Reedville (where my parents live, a very small town) every year, and our (much larger) town's parade is pretty much the same, except a lot longer. Although there was candy-tossing and the kids enjoyed that a lot, by the end of the parade, I was tired of waving, Xav looked about to fall asleep, and even Gwen looked a little tired.

I looked up and saw that at the end of the lengthy line of emergency vehicles that were passing, the policemen were starting to reopen Main Street behind them. "Look, guys!" I said (although they were surely deaf by now from all the sirens), "The parade is over!"

Gwen looked relieved, but Xavier suddenly perked up and leapt to his feet. "Mommy! Mommy! Look!" he cried, pointing. Behind the emergency vehicles was a Street Sweeper machine, cleaning up leftover candy. "It's a street sweeper! It's a street sweeper!" he screamed happily, jumping up and down.

For him, it was by far the most exciting part of the parade.


Well, I have to go. Gwen just finished supper, and she has just informed me that it is time to "catch fireflies and fireworks." Hopefully, she means we are going to watch the latter.