I love parades… – Hometown Focus

What is parades all about? What is so special about them?

Summer is popular for warm weather, boating, gardening, golfing, camping, fishing, picnics, vacation activities, and more. But people from far and wide still come together for celebrations as predictable as the annual gathering of mayflies, parades, and meetings, fairs, and various other festivals.

Think of parades. Put together a random mix of children, honor guards, vintage cars, clowns, horses, local celebrities, floats, marching bands and fire trucks and you have the ingredients for a great show that can stop time for a fleeting moment.

Streets are blocked off. Shops close. People line the streets to get a good seat. Children can’t wait to fight over free candy. Organizers do their best to make sure everything runs smoothly and on time. It’s organized chaos.

I speak for many when I say that I love parades. It’s a strange fascination, since we know pretty well what to expect. Even the most reclusive of hermits makes it a point to watch a parade.

I have participated in four parades – twice as a trumpet player in a brass band, once as the driver of a tiny Smart car (think of a VW Beetle crashing into a wall at high speed), and once dressed as Miss Piggy from the Muppets.

Being part of a marching band was a mixture of pride and precision. The Smart Car episode was funny. The Miss Piggy thing was beyond my normal personality, but parades do that to a person.

To return to the question posed at the beginning, it seems that the attraction of a parade is based on community rather than spectacle. It creates a sense of belonging. It is a place where you meet people. It is a common denominator between people who, unlike the sameness of a billion mayflies, are delightfully diverse and want to showcase that diversity in a parade. And we like that!

With many parades and other summer events coming up in the community, I encourage you to attend if you can. It is a privilege. Fortunately, this privilege was not taken lightly by the generations before who dutifully carried on these traditions and then passed them on to us. It is a good thing.

And if you happen to see Miss Piggy in a parade this summer, you can be absolutely certain that it’s not me! Maybe Kermit.

Leo Wilenius lives in rural Cook with his wife Lindy. He is retired from Lake Country Power in Mountain Iron. Leo can be contacted at (email protected).

Leo asks, “What is it about parades anyway” that seems to attract people every year, even though they know what to expect each time?