Hot.
Humid.
And beautiful.
Our Fourth of July parade is like a community portrait: you get the marchers, from Shriners—serious-faced, older African American men, with their funny, tassled hats—to Peruvian dancers, exuberantly dressed like lions, or in bright skirts and pants. There are bands, including the mostly-brass Takoma Park Community Band tootling along in the back of a truck; the perennial D.C. Motors rock and roll trio (“unplugged,” but playing with amps); and the Takoma Park Folk Festival contribution of a group of 20-plus people singing along with a guitar—again, in the back of a truck. The crowd sings along with them.
We get to wave to our neighbors, who march with the Unitarian Church, the boy scouts (in their hand-made roller derby cars), the community preschool and the attachment parenting group (they pass out fliers to explain exactly what that means). The Elementary School rolls along with a flat wagon dressed up as a swimming pool, to celebrate the pool they have there – the one that was almost abandoned, but then saved by they community. Their principal marches along with them.
The natural foods co-op wheels shopping carts with live-green messages on them, and gives away re-usable grocery bags. The manager of the new Ace hardware store drives by to hearty applause; the Panquility calypso band gets everyone dancing along the sidewalks; the folks who believe 9/11 was a conspiracy hold banners with quotes about truth from our founding fathers, and the parade watchers sober up. There’s the VFW from Hell’s Bottom, a once-backwater neighborhood near my house. We watch antique cars parade by, and a big, old firetruck. The Greenbelt Dog Training Marching Drill Team walk by singing about how they love their doggies, who obediently march along with them. A group of young girls in cheerleading skirts and tank tops, part of the Finest! Parade Marching Wildcats, shimmy and step to a clean drum beat from the boys who march along with them. The Washington Revels, dressed in long dresses and flower garlands, harmonize like good medieval musicians as they march.
Just as much fun as watching this crazy sampling of Takoma Park and its quirkiest neighbors is walking the parade route to see who’s out watching. I greet neighbors I run into every day, and others who rarely turn up, except for at this event: an old friend from my dog park days, another whose son attended elementary school with my daughter, a photographer I used to work with. Friends of the kids’. One of the community center’s artists, the director of public works, the former mayor, the guy who always cleaned up the cones at the soccer games.
And after the parade is finished—“That’s all folks,” proclaims the last car, staffed by two people from the Independence Day Committee that sponsors the event—neighbors disappear into various back yards and houses for follow-up picnics and parties, annual events that have become favorite markers in the Takoma Park calendar.
Yes, summer has arrived and settled in, with all my favorite characters along for the ride.
Humid.
And beautiful.
Our Fourth of July parade is like a community portrait: you get the marchers, from Shriners—serious-faced, older African American men, with their funny, tassled hats—to Peruvian dancers, exuberantly dressed like lions, or in bright skirts and pants. There are bands, including the mostly-brass Takoma Park Community Band tootling along in the back of a truck; the perennial D.C. Motors rock and roll trio (“unplugged,” but playing with amps); and the Takoma Park Folk Festival contribution of a group of 20-plus people singing along with a guitar—again, in the back of a truck. The crowd sings along with them.
We get to wave to our neighbors, who march with the Unitarian Church, the boy scouts (in their hand-made roller derby cars), the community preschool and the attachment parenting group (they pass out fliers to explain exactly what that means). The Elementary School rolls along with a flat wagon dressed up as a swimming pool, to celebrate the pool they have there – the one that was almost abandoned, but then saved by they community. Their principal marches along with them.
The natural foods co-op wheels shopping carts with live-green messages on them, and gives away re-usable grocery bags. The manager of the new Ace hardware store drives by to hearty applause; the Panquility calypso band gets everyone dancing along the sidewalks; the folks who believe 9/11 was a conspiracy hold banners with quotes about truth from our founding fathers, and the parade watchers sober up. There’s the VFW from Hell’s Bottom, a once-backwater neighborhood near my house. We watch antique cars parade by, and a big, old firetruck. The Greenbelt Dog Training Marching Drill Team walk by singing about how they love their doggies, who obediently march along with them. A group of young girls in cheerleading skirts and tank tops, part of the Finest! Parade Marching Wildcats, shimmy and step to a clean drum beat from the boys who march along with them. The Washington Revels, dressed in long dresses and flower garlands, harmonize like good medieval musicians as they march.
Just as much fun as watching this crazy sampling of Takoma Park and its quirkiest neighbors is walking the parade route to see who’s out watching. I greet neighbors I run into every day, and others who rarely turn up, except for at this event: an old friend from my dog park days, another whose son attended elementary school with my daughter, a photographer I used to work with. Friends of the kids’. One of the community center’s artists, the director of public works, the former mayor, the guy who always cleaned up the cones at the soccer games.
And after the parade is finished—“That’s all folks,” proclaims the last car, staffed by two people from the Independence Day Committee that sponsors the event—neighbors disappear into various back yards and houses for follow-up picnics and parties, annual events that have become favorite markers in the Takoma Park calendar.
Yes, summer has arrived and settled in, with all my favorite characters along for the ride.
Photo by Julie Wiatt of the Takoma Voice
That's Clara on the left! With Lauren and her sister.
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