Long, long ago, yet it seemed like only yesterday, a tiny little boy rode in his very first Christmas parade, in the back of the Cub Scout wagon. To his chagrin, his mother rode with him-- knowing that he had been voted the child most likely to jump out of the back of a moving truck. *
He was a tiger cub that year, his first grade year, and the start of a long tradition of parade appearances.
Throughout Cub Scouts, then on into band, the boy grew--and the parades went on. And the boy was in all of them -- except one, him being sick that year. And thus, at long last, though it seemed as but a vapor, we come to his final year in high school.
It was with pride, but not without a twinge of sadness, that this boy's mother watched her son march in his very last Grenada County Christmas Parade.
The NJROTC unit:
An old car:
An actual float:
The High School Band:
And Santa!
The reason for the season:
Yes, we still pray before football games and we dare you to try to stop us. We have a nativity on our town square, and we will defend it at all costs. Us small Southern towns are like that, you know.
Now, where I was sitting, I wasn't able to get a video of the band playing. I got one of them marching, and I kept sending strong mental vibes for them to start playing, but they didn't. However, since they play the same song every year, I can post one from a couple of years ago for you.
This video is from year before last.** However, you can clearly see Cody in it. He's the second tuba player over.
And just for nostalgia's sake, while I was grabbing the code for that video, here is the one from his very first time marching as a Band member, when he was in 7th grade. He is the second sousaphone from the far side:
I took more pictures, and if you're interested in seeing them, they can be found here:
Today was our town's annual Christmas parade. This year, however, I'll spare you my annual rant. If you really want to know what I think, you can read my previous rant. My opinion hasn't changed much since then. This year, they started the parade at 3:30. I had to go straight from work to the parade route, and I know a lot of people missed it. You know, like people who have to work. Anyway, that's why there were no photos. I didn't even have time to run home and get my camera. Or my jacket. Yes, I froze. But you can see the band videos at the provided link. They always play the same songs every year.
This week's Ten On Tuesday topic is one that is near and dear to my heart. And what is said topic, you may ask? Well, I'll tell you. This week's topic is --drumroll please--
What are your top 10 Christmas shows?
Yes, I love Christmas. And I love Christmas movies. And I'm wondering about now how I am going to limit it to 10. But I'll give her a go.
9. Santa Claus Is Coming To Town/Rudolph The Red Nosed Reindeer-- Yes, the stop motion animation is out dated, and maybe they could computer animate those shows a whole lot better, but the kitch is part of the charm. I never miss these. (I know these are two shows, but I had to cheat to get them both into my list.)
8. How The Grinch Stole Christmas-- Maybe Christmas, perhaps, doesn't come from a store. Maybe Christmas, perhaps, means a little bit more.
7. The Nativity Story-- A lot of the details are fictionalized, but it doesn't directly contradict anything that is in the Bible.
6. The House Without A Christmas Tree -- a TV classic from my childhood. I was sooo thrilled when they finally released it on video a few years ago.
4. The Muppet Christmas Carol-- Yes, I love the muppets. I took a lot of flack for it in high school, but I love them still. I love this version because they bring in Gonzo to play Charles Dickens, so we get to hear some of that wonderful prose from the book.
2. A Christmas Carol-- There are so many good ones, but my favorite is the Patrick Stewart version. Patrick Stewart is simply brilliant as Scrooge, and this movie explores some of the parts the others leave out.
OK, yeah. That was hard. There are soooo many other shows I could have listed here. The Homecoming, Frosty the Snowman, Miracle on 34th Street-- I could go on and on. But I think these are the ones I would want on that desert island with me. Feel free to share your own list in the comments.
Now, I think I'll go watch the Grinch before bedtime.
One last note, apropos of nothing... Rod was kind of dressed up today. Not really dressy-- it is a factory after all-- but nice. He looked good. When I first saw him this morning, I sort of did a double take and an involuntary "Wow" escaped my lips. I didn't know he had it in him.
I had to go back to work today, and boy I sure didn't want to. We're still going in early, so I had to get up at 4:30. To add insult to injury, it was pouring down rain. At least it wasn't cold, though it is supposed to be in the morning. The good news is, my heater is still working. After work, I had to run and pay my car insurance, then go by the hardware store and buy a new shovel to replace the one Cody broke. Finally, I went to the post office and mailed my sister's Christmas presents. At least they might get them by Christmas this year.
Well, it's that time of year again. Time for my annual rant about this stupid town's pathetic planning of the Christmas parade. At least this year, they moved it back to the original parade route, but now, they've moved the start time up to 3:30! That is so totally moronic there are no words for it. Most people will still be at work at that time. The only ones who will be able to attend will be those few stay at home moms that are left out there. I wish somebody --whoever plans this thing-- would grow a brain and have the parade on a Saturday.
If I get to go, I'll have to fly out to the square right after work, still in my filthy nasty work clothes, and hope I can find a parking spot. And this after spending 9 hours on my feet. Not my idea of holiday cheer.
The first Tuesday in December. The day of the town's annual Christmas parade. The day of my annual rant about our town's annual Christmas parade...
I've ranted about it before. This year, I've got a couple of additional rants to add to the mix. As if it weren't bad enough that the parade is on a Tuesday night instead of a Saturday afternoon, this year they decided to move the start time back. As in, later in the evening. What good is it to have a parade in the dark? You can't see anything. There were a few floats with lights on them, but the rest of the parade was just shadows passing in the night. These are the best of the pictures I was able to get.
Not only that, they changed the route of the parade, and didn't tell anyone. I've heard that there were lots of people lined up along the old route because they didn't know. They missed it all. Not that there was much to miss. Most of our parade is just cars with hand lettered signs on them. Anyway, they didn't just change the route, they shortened it considerably. I'll bet the whole route wasn't much more than 200 yards long.
Then ending of the route didn't seemed planned out very well either. It's like the entries got to the end and just stopped. Now I know all parades are start and stop, but this one was getting really bogged down. There were times when it seemed to take 15 minutes for the parade to move 10 feet. To add to the confusion, when the cars and the few floats they had were finished, they didn't exit along a different street. They were trying to drive back up the parade route, clogging things up even further.
I'm sorry. I'm not wanting to sound like a Grinch, and I love a parade, but this town has got the dumbest Christmas parade I've ever seen. This year it was worse. I noticed that there was not the festive attitude that there has been in years past. People seemed bored, restless, and frustrated. I know I was. The highlight of the parade is the High school band.
This year there were 4 bands in the parade. The Junior high band led off, as they usually do. I did get a video of them, but it's so dark you can't see anything. So this is the video from last year.
After they had passed, boredom began to set in, especially as slowly as the parade was moving. About a gazillion cars with hand lettered signs taped to the side passed by, the Holmes Community College band arrived. At this point, the parade really bogged down. They stood in the same place long enough to play their parade piece four times, plus all the intermittent drum cadence.
Finally, the parade moved again, albeit very slowly. A gazillion more cars with hand lettered signs taped to the side passed by, then off in the distance, the sound of the High School band could be faintly heard approaching. People began to sit up. The mood began to lighten. Excitement began to build. They were here! The Grenada High School Marching Band!!!
(Video from 2006--this year's was far too dark!)
Cheering, filming, marching along beside them. You'd have thought it was a movie star.
Now, normally, the band is the last thing in the parade. Well, the band, then Santa Claus then the horses and that's it. This year they put the band in the middle of the parade. Since they are what everyone comes to see, once the band had passed by, the crowd broke up pretty quickly. But there was more to the parade. A gazillion more cars with hand lettered signs taped to the side passed by, then one more band marched.
It was the band from McClain high school in a near by town. I felt sorry for them, because by the time they came down the route, most everybody had left already. I could see some of them looking around like, "Where is everybody?". They were small, but were pretty good. They did the dancing style marching and really put on a show.
That was it for this year's parade. Next year, I hope somebody wises up and realizes that a parade is only good if you can see it and they'll hold it during daylight hours. I say that every year, and they still haven't done it.
