Yesterday West Bountiful celebrated the 4th of July a week early, probably to avoid competing with bigger cities' festivities on the actual day--a pretty good idea. So I went along with my family to the parade and the carnival afterwards and showed up with Ty later on for the fireworks show. Let me just say that it was fabulous! It was one of my favorite days so far this summer. If this was a poem, I'd say I drank the day up like cherry kool-aid.
I started the day off sitting on the cement at the parade next to five little girls, squinting in the hot sun and waving like crazy with them at the floats that were throwing candy. We were all thirsty and very hot, but we wouldn't have left for anything. Things got more exciting when a big Noah's Ark float broke down right in front of us and all the other floats had to maneuver around it. Noah was stuck on top awkwardly waving to the same crowd for the rest of the parade. Finally, I think he just sat down. Every time a new float approached the narrow situation, the crowd drew in its collective breath and didn't let it out again until the float had passed without running over any people or broadsiding the broken-down Noah's Ark. It was priceless. Just the kind of thing you write about. The parade went on like this, and of course by the end, each of the kids had collected their own kingdom-sized piles of colored taffy. Every year, about the middle of the parade, as the mother of the year car and the Miss West Bountiful buggy go slowly by, I wonder why I like parades. They are, after all, pretty boring. But I love them in the same way I love those orange peanut-shaped marshmallows--They don't taste all that good, but they come pure and direct from my barefoot childhood.
After the parade, we went over to the carnival. It was all excitement for the first twenty minutes or so, but then the heat and the empty stomachs mixed together to make everyone a little grumpy. In the late afternoon, I ended up in the shade under a tree with my family, eating a banana snow cone that was more snow than anything banana. I had just paid ten dollars to buy Ashley an all-day ride pass, and she had ridden two rides and then announced she was ready to go home. My dad was asleep on his back, my mom was off waiting in an endless food line, and Danny was eating a root beer snow cone and expressing his wish to be home getting things done in his yard. The kids were everywhere, sunburned, tired, and still wanting to play forever. For all of this, the scene was absolutely perfect.
Later on, I went back to the park with Ty to watch fireworks. We got there in the middle of the show, and making our way through the awed and quiet crowd in the dark, only lit up by the frequent flashes of orange and green light, somehow reminded me of walking through an electric cemetery or something. We ended up sitting next to Ty's friends, a couple whose little boy clung to his dad in a mix of absolute terror and wonder at the big things happening in the sky. When it was over, Ty and I left the park laughing, I don't remember at what, and feeling good.
The day was basically a perfect piece of imperfect life, another reason I love summer.
No comments:
Post a Comment