so we went to the fourth of july parade yesterday...
and while being somewhat lame, there were a few highlights that made the day completely worthwhile...
there were more than a few political groups in the parade...and bush/cheney supporters were plentiful...one such group included two boys, newly into their adolescence, marching with what looked to be family and holding the bush/cheney sign...well, not so much holding as barely grasping and in fact letting part of the sign trail on the ground...they were not smiling, looked supremely bored, and were generally not "there"...then i noticed that the taller of the two boys was wearing a wristband with an anarchy symbol on it...now, i don't have any way of knowing if he knew what the symbol stood for, but what a picture!...
america's future...sullen, bored, disrespectful...supporting anarchy and marching for bush...
oh, "the champions for christ" was another good one...apparently, it was some sort of teen group...talk about looking sullen and bored, those bush kids had nothing on this group...their sign was ripped and looked oddly wet...they shuffled along, looking sort of bewildered and every couple of paces some of them would give a kind of smile and a half wave...mostly they just shuffled and looked like they'd like to be anywhere but in this parade...except the girl who was smiling and waving at everyone saying "god bless you", but was really saying "look at me!"...and the girl who couldn't have been more than sixteen wearing a pair of men's boxers rolled down to show the tattoo right above her butt...
"the champions for christ" might want to consider a revisement of their recruitment policy...or a name change...
of course, this being a parade, there was royalty in the form of local "miss hoohaw" and her attendants...complete with gowns and sashes and glitter...(and why is it that the "miss hoohaw" has an actual gown, tasteful, maybe even boring, and the farther you go down in the rank of the court, the gowns get less "tasteful"?...well, and there's just "less" gown in general..."hey maybe i didn't win, but look at my boobs!")
coming in on a fleet of miatas and waving *the wave* (they must practice)...they were young, and beautiful, and *winners*...two things ran through my mind
their parents must be so proud
this might be as good as it gets
it wasn't until a few floats later when the harley club came by that it really clicked for me, that maybe it got better after being "miss hoohaw"...or at least stayed relatively the same...because right there on the back of a few of the bikes were young women not but a few years older than "miss hoohaw" and her attendants...
and it got me thinking that it would be a natural progression to go from being "miss hoohaw" to being the "girl on the back of the bike"...because being "miss hoohaw" might really just have been as good as it got...and how better to recapture attention, even for just the 15 minutes of parade route fame, than to ditch the gown for a barely there tank top and tight jeans, and put your body on the back of a harley...
it's no different than being "miss hoohaw"...just a different outfit and a different vehicle...and maybe just a little more fun...
because everyone knows a harley is way cooler than a miata...
which brings me to the "red hat ladies"...spunky older women each wearing some sort of red hat and purple clothing...
there are "red hat" clubs all over...it's a social outing kinda club, and they've been around for years...and it's not just for older women, but the gist of the club seems to appeal mostly to older women...this particular club in the parade was a "red hat club" but called themselves "the hoohaw red hot mamas"...and from the looks of it, none of them was a day younger than seventy...
so these "red hot mamas", some riding and some walking with a red pt cruiser as their float, were shimmying through the parade...they were proud and confident and sassy women...they were getting lots of cheers and just eating up the attention...
then the second red car came by...a classic 50's red car with a big glittery sign on it that said "queen mother"...and inside indeed was the queen mother if i ever saw one...she was wearing a red hat and a huge fluffy lavender gown and gloves...and she was waving *the wave*...and couldn't have been a day over a hundred...
and then it hit me...
these "red hot mamas" were just the "miss hoohaws" and the "girls on the back of the bikes" all grown up...it was the same parade formula, the clothes, check!, the vehicles, check!, the smiles!, check!...only fifty years older...right down to *the wave*...
apparently these women figured out that they didn't have to take what they got...that it hadn't been "as good as it gets"...that if they just kept going, they'd still get it...the attention, the public notice, the chance to shine once more on the top of a float...regardless of age...
the maiden, the mother, the crone...
the sacred female trinity was alive and well in the hoohaw fourth of july parade...well, maybe not the "mother"...come to think of it i didn't see but a few mothers...most floats were older people, kids, and men...
i guess it's not that surprising really...the mothers were probably there, just behind the scenes at the beginning of the parade fixing costumes and giving last minute kisses and warnings...then following the parade taking pictures, making sure things are going smoothly...then waiting at the end of the route with snacks and drinks and hugs...she's there, we just don't see her...
it's probably the same reason why we never really see mothers in photos during their children's childhood...sure when they're babies, proud and glowing...then when they are older at graduations and weddings, proud and glowing...but during the actual growing up process the mom isn't "there"...she's the one taking the pictures, or shying away...it may be she doesn't want evidence of the weight she's gained, or that she feels the picture is more about the kids than her, or she's just too busy doing something else...
because when you've got kids who has time to ride on a float?
the mother is not in the parade because she's running the parade...while we see the maidens and the crones glittering atop the floats, the teenagers shuffling along in adolescent bewilderment, the kids grabbing for candy, and the men driving the miatas and dressing up like vikings (do not get me started on that lot of idiots), the mothers are making sure every one has what they need, and waiting at the end for everyone to get done...
well, i think "the mother" needs to be better represented...especially this mother...so i'm going have to my own parade...with NO vikings, NO scantily clad teenagers, and NO miatas!...
because while i'm too old to be "miss hoohaw" and am too much woman to be "girl on the back of the bike", i do own a tiara and i think i'd better figure out a way to be "queen mother" before i'm too damned old to enjoy it!!!...
and if no one is gonna put me on top of a float, i'm gonna just have to put myself there...the sillymortalmama parade all about me!
i'd better practice my wave...
x.
oh, and i'm not the only family member to be in a parade...remember i had mentioned the duke's long standing desire to be in a parade?...well, in a few weeks he will be part of a real parade taking place in a town near ours...he's very excited, i'll keep you posted...
No comments:
Post a Comment