it rained on our parade today. kinda watered it down,too. (pun not intended.) the flyers around the neighborhood stated the parade would start at 11am but by the time your dad and i got there, around 1145, it still hadn't begun. we walked down to Jester's Cafe, got a couple cups of coffee, and posted up out front, under a tree.
wasn't long til we ran in to this guy. (this is his pose for you, btw.) seems like the two days i'm guaranteed to see him are Halloween and MLK Day. like two or three years in a row i've seen him on those days. he says he's doing well, still lives at the Carolina and still doesn't have an email address or a mobile phone. Byron came by, ("Byyyyroooon, my man") begging for food, but nobody gave. Sean then told me a story of how he first met Byron about 20 years ago when they were both "locked up" for a spell. a couple with kids that we know but i always forget their names walked past and i said hello and Sean made some comment about how i know all the white women with babies around here, huh? i'm like how does one constitute them all? starting trouble, as always....
...the reason i bring this up is because then this happened. the conversation was
something like this: "do i know you?i think i know you." "do you go to the theater at all?" "no not really." "ever been locked up?" "Excuse me?" "i think i knew your brother.i probably corrupted his mind." "he lives in South Carolina." "oh yeah, cool"... turns out they did know each other, sorta. eventually, he wound up in the parade. somebody he knew was walking, he went out to say hey, and just kinda kept going....
there weren't any steppers this year. none. a couple of marching bands braved the rain (which was fairly lite) and chilly breeze, but no dancers at all. and none of the ATVs or bikers did any tricks. your dad noticed a group of horses getting riled up from the noise of being directly behind the constantly revving ATVs. i imagined the exhaust fumes weren't any picnic either.
i had some video of a junior high marching band routine but our phones take video in a weird format so i can't watch or upload it. they were the best act of the parade, though. and i noticed a lot more passing-candy-out this year than the usual hurl-it-at-the-crowd. (still plenty hurling though.) kids were still clamoring to pick the candy out of the puddles by the sidewalks, but it was more like first-go-first-grab and the rest of the kids wait for another round. cold, wet candy? that's alright, you go ahead.
hey... remember this? i'm pretty sure this is 2005. you took this for your photo class. i love the smeared wheels.
what about this, maybe 2007 or 8.
your dad and i have been to like 4 or 5 of these consecutively, and we missed you. remember one year you danced with the Church's Chicken, and another year Wynter met us there? Sean made a remark like "damn, makin your woman work on Martin Luther King Day. that's cold." then i told him where you were and what you were doing and he was really impressed. "all right, Kashka! movin up that ladder!" and the couple who i can't name asked where you were too, and wish you luck.
hope your MLK Day is treating you right. as requested:
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