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DJ Sundog from the *new* toot-lab

it was very much a small town holiday parade. it went right past Hemlock Bazaar, so I had a pretty good view of the whole thing from the front of the store.

starting it off were four kids in camo fatigues as the honor guard for the whole thing, almost marching in time to the cadence one of them called.

then came the blasting of the sirens by a few cop vehicles.

then there were some trailers dressed as floats pulled by pickup trucks with people on the floats being variously active.

then the high school marching band and flag squad, who were excellent? they're good. great by rural school district standards in my long experience with rural school marching bands.

then a bunch of jeep owners who'd put holiday lights on their jeeps.

more floats, mostly from local churches, one from the local scout troop.

a propane delivery tank with holiday lights.

some old cars, mostly without any adornment because it might devalue the old car.

a few more floats.

then it was over.

DJ Sundog from the *new* toot-lab

the thing that really stood out to me was how many folk were involved. ellijay is not big. gilmer county is bigger than ellijay, but still, not big. if I had to guess, I'd say about 20% of gilmer county residents were either in the parade or sitting out in the cold on the sidewalks of ellijay watching the parade.

and folks, I am a "fuck a parade" person at this stage in my life. I've been in parades - lots and lots of parades, from a pretty young age - and I've even been in big parades, televised parades even, and I am over parades.

but watching the little holiday parade wind past the store last night, I hated coming to the realization that despite not being a parade guy, I think we need to run a weird float in next year's holiday parade just as a palate cleanser from all the fashy bullshit.

sometimes taking action means getting together with your friends and making something weird and then making it everybody else's problem.