I was looking forward to watching a certain holiday parade this past Saturday. I had a group of friends taking part, and I was lucky enough to have a pretty good vantage point – right on the main downtown strip of Barrington.
As you can imagine, it was super busy in this area. There were tons of kids, and they all looked happy and excited. The weather couldn’t have been better for a parade. And then we spotted the first floats! The crowd went wild for that float, and the next group, and the next, and then…
Five minutes went by, and no parade.
Then a couple more floats!
Then five more minutes of emptiness.
And so on, for the whole effing parade!
I found it intolerable, and I’m an adult! You should have seen the faces of the poor little kids. So disappointed. And I’m not even talking about small gaps, there were times where you literally could not even see the next group/float coming down the street. And it wasn’t just a few times. It was a lot.
Anyway, it really pissed me off. I’ve seen many parades in my life, and this was the worst. And it shouldn’t have been! The participants put a lot of work into their floats and costumes and they looked great. I felt bad for them when the audience enthusiasm began to wane after the fourth five-minute gap.
As the cherry on the poop cake, I’ve since found out that the root of the problem was probably the fact that the newspaper which is the main sponsor for this particular event had cameras set up somewhere early in the parade, and were encouraging people to stop and do something entertaining for their video. I mean, come on. I understand that in a large parade some gaps are going to happen, but actually stopping people once the parade had begun? That’s just shortsighted. It’s not like this was the first year for this event. —Geek Chick
This article appears in Nov 17-23, 2011.
It seemed to back together just fine by the time they hit University Ave. The only big gap was at the end between the penultimate entry (I forget what it was now) and Santa.
seemed to be*
Sounds par for the course for this shit show of a ‘city’.
I found the Natal Day parade was pretty gapped too. I don’t know how to run parades but I bet I could do a better job.
it’s because our parades are fuckin ghetto ass parades with VERY little imagination/creativity/funding.
They basically look piss-poor which is why I hated being there.
(I have my reasons… but begrudged every second of the HOUR AND A HALF it took to get the shit show over with)
The only float I found worthy enough to be called a ‘float in a parade’ was the ship which had sea creatures coming up and looked reasonably well done.
the rest were flatbeds with so little decoration a blind, one armed leper could throw that shit together in about an hour.
the beginning is always PACKED because these little fucking kids have to get to bed when it’s over… and they’re just going to get more cranky if they have to wait near the end of the parade, since it finishes over an hour later.
Really… it’s just a sad example of what should be a parade…
and there’s a reason a few of my friends throw white-trash xmas parties to watch it on tv.
’cause it’s a parade of trash and always will be.
Oh, and thanks Mr Kelly for pelting me with shitty candy.
douche.
I wonder if the delays were because it was being broadcasted on Eastlink and they would stop every so often to plug the sponsers and do street talks, like the guy who proposed to his lady with a big sign behind them. Some of the costumes like the muppets were dead lame, glad I didn’t beat downtown to see it
the kids went APESHIT for those muppets…
kermit looked like a coked out fiend who’s eyes were bulging out his head…..
http://drugster.info/img/ail/3076_3099_3.j…
Leave it to LTWWB to have people complaining about free stuff. Stay the fuck home and listen to a blank cassette tape if free shit is so bad.
My little guy loved Oscar the grouch. But I was a little pissed waiting 15 minutes between the last float and Santa. A lot of people thought it was over and started to pack up. I’ll be at the sprytown parade this Sunday to watch my niece and nephew…. Bet that one makes Hali’s look like the Macy’s day parade.
Yeah a lot of the costumes were of not so great quality. I found myself constantly thinking “I know people who could make better costumes than this”. Some of said people were in the parade, which was my primary reason for watching it.
hey geeky, don’t you be dissing the old fool with the white beard. after 500 years, will you still be remembered for anything.
our greys will be in that parade mama bear, we had 16 in the bedford parade
smile&wave … you got it. I was on Barrington next to the Eastlink folks. They regularly stopped or slowed the parade for interviews and to record close up footage. And there was quite a delay when the marriage proposal happened.
OP .. it was mildly annoying for me, but it wasn’t about me … my daughter still had a great time and the other kids that were around us seemed to be enjoying it too. If the kids around you were upset … maybe they were feeding off of the vibes of the cranky adults.
I’ll go see it when they go back to calling it the CHRISTMAS parade.
OB, don’t bother with anything that involves kids. No doubt every one of the parents on that parade route thought their child was the perfect angel, while wanting to throw the nearest screaming kid under the next float.
i am taking my little bugaboo to the one in sprytown too mama chick. will be the guy with the frown and and a broken back.
Broken back Suckster?
Frig, that sounds like a movie title ;)jk
I remember going to the parade once upon a time back when I was a Hali noob. I was excited, less so when I realized the whole fucking parade was just a procession of billboards on flatbeds with some lights strung on them. I might as well have just stayed home and watched commercials on TV. I mean, I get that businesses are who put the floats in the parade, but come on…at least pretend it’s more than just free advertising for you!
“I’ll go see it when they go back to calling it the CHRISTMAS parade.”
I’m sure the organizers will get right on that to appease you, dumb blonde.