Unlike California, Memorial Day Weekend is a major event in the Northeast.
In just about every small hamlet on Long Island, for instance, there were morning parades down Main Streets on Memorial Day...
...that featured veterans...
...high school marching bands...
...multitudes of overweight white people...
...volunteer fire departments...
...showing off their gleaming equipment...
...decorated animals...
...ethnic affinity groups...
...and patriotic signage carried by children's scouting troops.
It was an altogether odd experience.
That's what they call "normal" around those parts.
ReplyDeleteLooks more like a fourth of July parade than a Memorial Day parade..
ReplyDeleteWe're going to be on the road somewhere in Middle America on July 4 and I am hoping to catch one of these parades -- though feeling the familiar tingle of awareness that these things can be dangerous to my kind. Whatever that is.
ReplyDeleteComing from the East, I do actually think California's disconnect from the history that these patriotic events embodies makes us poorer. I know, our history is different. No less bloody and exploitative, but more broadening perhaps.. Sigh.
Dear Jan: I know what you mean about California's disconnect from the history of "these patriotic events," though I don't think it necessarily makes us poorer. I was rather shocked, in this day and age, near the city of New York, that the parade would be close to 99% white. There's good, unyielding tradition and not-so-good, unyielding tradition, and on this trip I managed to see both, which was sort of fascinating.
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