The official Atlanta Children’s Christmas Parade paraded past our house today, so we bundled up, braved the cold, and walked half a block to check it out.
The last Christmas parade I attended was maybe forty years ago. I was a Cub Scout in Anniston, Alabama, on a float that was more a pickup truck than a float, wearing a towel around my head and a striped housecoat — a low-budget Middle Eastern wise man.
At today’s parade, the energy was entirely different. The gale-force winds down the wind tunnel we call Peachtree Street kept everyone hopping from foot to foot to stay warm. The crowds moved to the music of the marching bands, bouncing and bobbing and singing along. The huge balloon animals, forced down by winds, grazed the tops of our heads as they passed us by. In short: we had a cold, crazy, Christmasy time — one of our best Saturday mornings at home in weeks.
Not there there weren’t strange notes here and there. At the beginning of the parade were several marchers wearing oversized heads of political leaders, including Barack Obama. One, apparently based on politician Ted Cruz, carried a sign emblazoned with the words, “Obamacare=Fuzzy Math.” Another — Hillary Clinton — carried a sign stating that her first presidential proclamation would be “No Interns in the Oval Office.” Given the context of a “Children’s Christmas Parade,” the inclusion of these characters seemed odd at best. What were organizers thinking?
Add comment