Monday, May 28, 2007

Small Town America

Today is Memorial Day in the USA. It is a day that we have set aside to remember our veterans and honor their sacrifice. My family and I went off to the local parade to take in the sights of small town America's take on the Memorial Day parade. This is a parade that I marched in as a little league player, a cub scout, and a boy scout. I didn't play an instrument, so I never got to march in the band.Here is a picture of the Syosset High School Marching Band. The team name for SHS? The Braves. The first of three marching bands in the parade, they get to lead as they are the high school band.

In addition to the little league teams and the aforementioned cub and boy scouts, the parade led off with the veterans (an unfortunately small number), the Knights of Columbus, the local churches, and the Girl Scouts. My mother was a long time girl scout and marched for several years.


This is the third marching band, the Astronauts of Harry B. Thompson Middle School. I was a little disappointed to see the school has done away with the old orange and white uniforms in favor of matching the high school's red and white colors.


When you see the fire trucks you know the parade is over. There were a few parades, where the trucks had to leave early to go fight a fire somewhere.

Astute readers will see in these pictures and descriptions how I came up with my "blog" name.

No recipe this Monday, go barbecue some hamburgers and hot dogs and have some corn on the cob. It's the unofficial start of summer!

For those keeping track, my family's drive north on Friday night was uneventful. We made our layover stop, my sister-in-law's, in Wilmington, DE in just about 2 hours. On Saturday morning, we continued on for NY and made the trip in about 3 and 1/2 hours. Coming home tonight, our trip ranked in our top five for travel time between New York and DC, completing the trip in just about 5 hours.

It's back to work tomorrow, until I head back to NY for the big Yard Sale in Syosset and the closing of the chapter on my family home. Soon, I will share with you some pictures I took of my dad's new digs. It is very . . . interesting.

For those who still care, the Stanley Cup finals start tonight. The Anaheim Ducks face off against the Ottawa Senators. One of the two teams will hoist Lord Stanley's trophy for the first time. I have had guest bloggers offer their takes on the previous series. I tried to persuade one friend, with whom I talk hockey with about a fair deal, despite the fact she is a Boston Bruins fan, to offer her prediction. She is still angry about the recent labor difficulties and firmly believes that hockey should not exist where ice does not "grow" naturally. You would not be surprised with her one word prediction . . . Ottawa.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The Memorial Day parade was always a big event in my family. One or the other of us were always marching: my stepfather is a veteran, my sister and I were girl scouts then in marching band, my brother was a boy scout, and then my sister joined the Army. My mother sold paper poppies for the American Legion every year, and we always went to visit my grandfather's grave after the parade.