I love parade!

I know- I whine a lot about living in an urban jungle dog-eat-dog, vicious inner-city. But if we go not far from the boundaries of Dayton, there are smaller suburbs with life more like I prefer. Last night Angela and her boys marched in a parade in Vandalia which is where the "Dayton" airport is. They have an annual air show which is pretty spectacular. Along with the air show they have an annual parade. Although budget cuts are pretty much doing away with high school music programs, there are local groups (church sponsored or just involved parents) who want to give their kids an alternative to gangs. Below is a photo of one of those groups. If you look carefully, in front of the woman dressed in white shirt and red pants is a pint-sized drummer. He couldn't be much more than 3 years old. He was carrying a little bass drum and pounding on it for all he was worth. If nothing else, these kids had rhythm! There weren't many of what I remember as "floats" really but there were some interesting looking vehicles.

After an hour and 10 minutes, the group of scouts I was watching for finally arrived! This parade was easily 1 1/2 hours long, pretty impressive for a small town in Ohio. The church scout group had chosen the pinewood derby as kind of their theme. Not wanting to be just a group of kids carrying their little wooden cars, Angela decided to make a pinewood derby replica big enough to ride in. Tanis is just out of this photo but he is pulling Joshua who is riding in the cardboard, duct tape, and craft paint car built on a street luge that Tanis and his dad had built.

This photo shows more of the group with Tanis pulling the little pinewood derby car.

I marched in a lot of parades when I was young. They have always given me a little thrill. Somehow, watching people walk and vehicles drive down the street just isn't the same as the line-up of high school bands spaced just right to avoid competing sounds with floats large and small interspersed. I'm really glad Angela took the time to have her boys make their little car. It's sad that parades are going the way of everything but computers and related screen-type entertainment. It's sad that so many youth are deceived into thinking they are learning to play an instrument when they just know how to turn on an electronic "toy". Our electronic technology has been a boon to our access to information but it is also providing the downfall for real social interaction and personal growth.