Skip to main content

Ready for a Parade

I drove through downtown Venice on Friday morning. In truth I drove around downtown because the actual downtown street was blocked off and filled with paving equipment. I drove past the brand new library which will open this week.


Several streets were lined with collapsed folding chairs and blankets spread out. I don't mean just a few here and there. The streets were lined end to end. People staking out their territory. Hmmm, must be a parade is scheduled for the afternoon?

Well, actually, the parade was scheduled for Saturday night at 7 o'clock. What? All the spaces taken by noon the day before? I don't get that compulsion.

Honestly, it is one of the reasons I avoid dinners and pot luck events at the park clubhouse. If the event starts at 5 or 6, everyone has rushed down by 10 a.m. to leave a sweater or some other demarcation -- "MY SPOT!"

Am I the only one who finds this vaguely hostile?

Comments

  1. It's the same way in New Orleans for the Mardi Gras parades. We didn't do it, but many many did. If you wanted to have a ladder set up so your kids could sit up high in the front row, it was probably the only way. We just went and took our chances. Enjoyed it then... but no more. Too many people, too crowded... must be an age thing.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Yes, I think it is obnoxious. I'd be tempted to go about 11 a.m. and move everything from the chairs. Probably wouldn't win me any friends. :)

    As for the parade, I would the city would stop that habit. Certainly seems like an opportunity for vandalism.

    Eileen

    ReplyDelete
  3. I am surprised the unattended chairs on the street are not stolen. Both actions for the parade and dinners would keep me away.

    ReplyDelete
  4. This is totally hostile. It reminds me of the beach at the resort we went to in the Dominican Republic. They'd park their towels there, and come and go. I loathe crowds, anyway.

    ReplyDelete
  5. well to be honest I don't understand a parade. It's people walking down the street. Why must I want to watch that? Anyhoo, yes it is a bit hostile and obnoxious. Give 'em my spot. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  6. You're back in Florida?!? Anyway ... the way I see it, either you like to get in and mix it up with the crowds, or you don't. I don't.

    ReplyDelete
  7. Yep, slightly hostile. Especially the saving chairs at a sit down meal. I discovered this at a senior center when my mother was still alive. I found it very annoying.

    ReplyDelete
  8. So you are in Florida for the winter. Enjoy the sunshine.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Road blocks for parades drive me crazy especially when I didn't know or care about the parade.

    ReplyDelete
  10. I think it would be appropriate to sneak in the middle night and rearrange all these unattended territorial markers. Move the chairs several blocks from the original spot and then watch on the news about all the confusion it caused.

    ReplyDelete
  11. Same thing for the Rose Parade - have to go day before, camp out overnight. Only went once — took a bus the Parade morning with a group that had reserved bleacher seats at the almost end of the parade.

    ReplyDelete

Post a Comment

I appreciate readers' comments so much. You don't even always have to agree with me.

Popular posts from this blog

It's TIme

 It's been a while since I have posted anything and even my reading your posts is falling by the wayside. I am in Florida now. I have a yard where little attention was spent on landscaping for the past years so I am slowly and (somewhat) methodically addressing that. I also volunteer to work at the pollinator garden and the edible garden I helped install at the UU grounds and I took over the volunteer job of cleaning out the overgrown community garden by my neighborhood mailboxes. The neighbor who was doing that got sick and could no longer attend to it. It's a bigger job than I'd thought at first -- not only overgrown with weeds, but the plants that are wanted there are in life and death competition for each others' spaces. And two walks a day, morning and evening, so Levi can keep up with addiction to canine social media and a daily rousing came of stick or ball midday take up another chunk of my time. I have a weekly meditation group that I co-facilitate, and my own ...

Life Goes On

There is nothing like a visit from the grand children to remind one that life goes on.  I spent Friday night at my daughter's and then brought the kids back home with me.  I did not get to see so much of them this past summer and it was a birthday gift to my daughter (who just turned 40!) to have a couple of days to herself. She probably spent them in her son's room playing Lego StarWars.  Dane tried to teach me how to play this video game--a hopeless task if ever there was one.  "Concentrate, Grandma!  You have to concentrate!"  I do have a hard time with sustained concentration lately, but in this case I had no clue what it was that needed concentration.  He finally took the controls away from me (thank-you!). It's amazing how long he can amuse himself at my house being out side on a scooter or helping me in the yard, especially if it involves a hose.  Inside, they both sit and draw or craft for hours.  Just before bed, Dane did say, "N...

Walking

 I have always been a walker. Now that I have a high energy dog there is no excuse for not getting out there. And the weather is not an interfering factor here. Early morning and early evening are our preferred times so even when it gets hot we should be okay. We can get quite a long walk going around the neighborhood, greeting neighbors out working in their yards or walking their own dogs. But the landscape changes quickly just beyond the confines of the housing developments. It could be described as natural Florida or as sites of future housing developments. I do prefer the first option. And I really enjoy being out in natural areas so I often opt to head to a nature setting. I would have liked to put a picture here. Unfortunately my iPhone has made a unilateral decision. It will no longer be sending my photos to my computer. Why? I have no idea. However, we may be walking along happily enough -- me listening to the birds or trying to identify wildflowers and other plants while L...