It's a parade!
 

Have you ever been in a parade?

I have a dim memory of once being in a parade (don't remember what parade) as a little girl, but that's all.

Have you ever watched a really big parade? Like, the Rose Bowl, or Macy's Thanksgiving parade?

I haven't. Not even a Disney Parade. But then again, I don't like crowds!

thanks; I think. "embedding disabled on request"

Went to the Thanksgiving Parade in Philly, once, it was worth seeing, once.
Saw the Easter Parade in New York, but that's a different animal.
Most of the ballons in the New York Parade, will be in the Springfield, Massachusetts Parade, the next day.

I love local hometown parades. Everybody gets out and lines the street, watches the school band, scout troops, fire trucks, antique tractors, those little shriners cars sometimes, etc. And here we're just as likely to see horses and goats. A local vet has his customers walk their dogs in the parade. Here where I live, anybody can walk in the parade if they want to, you just have to show up at the designated time and place. It's so much fun.

We do it for Memorial Day and the annual Christmas festival, which was last weekend.

So yeah, I've walked in bunches of them, with the Girl Scouts, but now I just get to watch.

Went to the Detroit TXG parade with weeks-old Thor in tow, watched a few smaller small town christmas ones and 4th July and walked in one Ann Arbor 4th July parade :lol: (think about it....)

I hate a parade.

I'm all paraded out, now, but we put the Detrot one on the TV this morning and the kids enjoyed watching.

when I lived in Park City, UT, they had a great Fourth of July hometown parade, with fire trucks and horses, saloon gals, and veterans marching. Very well organized, old timey, fun.

oh I forgot ...we have a neighborhood bike/firetruck parade every Memorial Saturday when we open the pool...

I was in Marching Band in high school, so I've marched in my fair share of parades. Also, being a huge Disney nut, we've been to a bunch of them during our visits to Disney World. My favorite is the Spectromagic parade at Magic Kingdom - it's done at night and all of the floats are lit up with thousands of small twinkly lights. It's crowded, but we stake out our seats a while in advance and people watch, that way we get a really good view and get to people watch too!

Kellie

If it's interesting enough I'll watch, but not for long, but that's just me. I think the majority of people who really love it are the older folks and the kids. I'm more for going to a live game and watching people compete against each other.

Worked on Rose Parade floats for a number of years, been to the Rose Parade too many times to count (the best was when my mom's friend had a second story office right on Colorado Blvd - stay inside, warm with breakfast and a bathroom, and eye level with the floats while avoiding the crowds.)

Got to march in down Main Street of Disneyland w/ high school marching band. Pretty stressful but memorable.

Love hometown parades the best.

Ha! me too

I've been in several, a couple as exhibition/float personnel, couple-three marching in the Prince George's County Police Pipe Band. Years ago -- some of them many years ago. Parades -- they're made for bands, and in particular (bias alert!) for pipe bands.

I've been in about a dozen.
UG is right, they're made for bands.

I went in a local Christmas parade as a kid. Think firetrucks, school band, business sponsors, a hundred or so local kids on bikes, including me.
All the kids treated it like a race and dashed off, passing all the other floats. :lol:

Do demos count?

Took the thought out of my head! We don't seem to do parading here except for the demos. Anti-war, CND, Reclaim the Night/Streets. Trade Union stuff with our wonderful banners, 'Save the NHS', Anti-BNP, Anti-Apartheid, and my most recent one 'Troops Out'.

London has it's truly sumptious New Year and Lord Mayor parades which I used to watch but even they are very militaristic.

'Thatcher Out!' 'Thatcher Out!' 'Blair's a Liar!' 'Blair's a Liar!' Happy days.

lol

Maggie Thatcher, Milk Snatcher!


And the always popular "Maggie, Maggie, Maggie.....out, out out!"

Bizarrely the first one despite being from my very early childhood, still occasionally could be heard on demos when I was in my teens.

Our St. Pat's day parade is huge, one of the largest in the nation. About 4 hours long. We enjoy it. I have had an opportunity to be in it each year but I would rather watch it.

Trade Union?
Do people still wear salmon-colored linings in the suits to garner sympathy?

/Way, way obscure
//Explanation on request.....
-----------------------

Wait a minute. UG was a PG County cop?

Or just in the pipe band.

Do Identity Parades count?

http://truestorieslaworder.com/blog/...l-suspects.jpg



(police line-up to you trans-Atlanticans)

They look like the kind of people who'd bury you in a cave near the beach...

Marched in many. I was a genuine Band Geek. Played Clarinet and Xylophone. The Clarinet was easier to carry. Marched in The Miss America Parade three times, across some bridge linking the US and Canada at Niagara Falls, assorted local parades (Memorial Day and Christmas), couple of Phillies Games, and at DisneyWorld, back when it was relatively new (1978).

I did most of my early growing up in the Midwest, so the Village's 4th of July Parade was a very big deal, either was there watching with my family, or marching with my Brownie Troop, which was a very big deal, as I got to carry the U.S. Flag. dadwolf worked at an office building on Wacker Drive in Chicago, so he'd take us into his office to watch the big parades, including Saint Pat's.

A cousin took siswolf and I to the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day Parade one year, sometime in the 70s. I remember being fascinated by what were then called Drill Teams and are now referred to as Step Crews.

Step Crew really doesn't have the same double entendre potential..... :( still, I'll do my best..... ;)

Can I have Gabriel Byrne?

PUH-LEEEESE??? *pant/pant*

Bias strongly agreed with! Went to the Rocky Mountain Highlands Festival this year - the opening parade was presenting of the clans, pipe bands, and not much else. Absolutely magical.

You can have them all, sweetie. wrapped or unwrapped?

We have the winner. <flings confetti>

You didn't have to be a cop to be in the PG County Police PB. Fact is only a couple-three of the bandmembers were police officers. Officer Corcoran once told me one reason he joined the pipe band was to have more friends who weren't all police officers.

You can tell the ones who are sworn officers by looking to see if they have their police badges on their pipe band uniforms. Their tartan is American Police Tartan, a mauvy-looking sett that is about the only tartan I've seen that would clash with a saffron shirt.

American Police Tartan
 

It does go well with police uniform shirt colors. Even highway patrol khaki, being a neutral, can work. Just not saffron, the way red and green clan tartans can.