Ba-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Da-Dum

Happy July 4th, all youse folks in the US of A. You'd think, living as we do on the cusp of our nation's capitol, that we'd be headed into DC to take advantage of the Folk Life Festival, concerts, and fireworks on the Mall. Nosiree, I'm not headed into that mad house. We live in the wee town of Takoma Park where we have our own slate of activities.

We took Pappy this morning to his first parade. Living in an alt-dot-odd city, the parade had it's peculiarities, to wit:

• To give you a better idea of the magnitude of floats in our parade, we aren't talking Mardi Gras by a longshot.
• A women's tackle football team came by handing out football cards-- I got a 4 foot 11 inch 145 pound inside linebacker's card.
• We had not one, but two steel drum bands-- we're a pretty diverse community.
• The belly dancer float was followed by the Afro-Asian Kung Fu club.
• The Morris dancers were replaced by a Revelers choral group, but it looks like the same bunch of people.
• The nearby college's gymnastics club came flying by.
• For some reason this dump truck full of kids went driving past-- I'm not sure I entirely understand that message.
• These guys in great costumes come by each year.
• We had a local dog training group in the parade.
• And, being a progressive community, we had Low Wattage Bulb Man, assorted peaceniks, the School for Gifted Fish, and folks on stilts dressed for the rising waters of global warming.
• Pappy was fascinated by most of it, but he did not like the marching drums.

Next, we have the block party where they block off our street, have a kid's parade, and everybody sets up grills. Finally the evening ends with fireworks at the local middle school. That's better than some stinking National Symphony Orchestra and firework display over the Potomac River, innit?