America's Best on Parade

Although I will still be posting things from my UK trip for a while I am obviously back in the States.  Being gone a month is long enough that you see your home with new eyes again.  Certainly there is much that is difficult to explain to my overseas friends....or even to my fellow citizens who apparently no longer recognize their homeland.  Problems?  Sure.  No shortage of them.  But the Promise is also there.  It always has been.  I think it always will be.

On Friday a new tradition was on display.  When Covid bit hard in 2020 there was no gathering for high school graduation.  A big gym packed with people did not seem prudent, and if we are being honest few of us ever enjoyed the ceremony that much anyway.  Instead there was a parade through our community.  Graduates in cap and gown riding in the beds of pickup trucks and such.  Proudly being driven by their parents or friends.  Decorations elaborate or simple.  Signs and flags showing what was important to them or where they were heading for college or other destinations.  It was charming, and has continued even as Covid slowly, grudgingly releases its grip on the land.  A few pictures and thoughts from the 3rd annual Grad Parade.

Despite being very well organized - police escorts at the start and finish - moving 375 graduates through town can take a while.  I'm told at the end their diplomas are handed to them through the vehicle's window!

So many pick up trucks.  This young lady is joining the Air Force.

A vintage entry.  Lawn chair, cooler and boom box in the back.

Of course somebody will always turn up in a Limo.  Probably will do so for the 20th Class Reunion too.

How do you even get something like this?  American flags were much on display.

Not sure why but here is a Turkish flag and another I could not identify.  Another vehicle had flags from El Salvador and Mexico.  Everyone got cheers and thumbs up.

Presumed family business entry number one.

Almost for sure family business entry number two.  The sign on the door has the somewhat confusing message "The Future is Bright".  Still kinda cool.

Personal Favorite Entry: Runner Up.  A Shriner Car!  For those who know not of such things the Shriners are a fraternal organization that often "does" parades with little squadrons of these things doing formation driving.  Well played, Sir, well played.

Personal Favorite: Second Place.  This is a large cardboard cutout of the grad.  The signboard says he is already in Marine Corps Boot Camp.  Note also the flag on the front of the car.  Looks like grandpa sitting proud in the back seat.  I am 99.9% sure he also served and will have a Corps tattoo on his arm.

And my absolute favorite?  I'm not going to show that picture.  It was clearly a Special Needs student.  But he was every bit as proud to be going down the parade route in the back of a pickup truck wearing his cap and gown.  He had three younger kids - siblings? - and a dog riding with him.  All of them, even the dog I think, were smiling.

So there you go.  A bright sunny evening when a parade happened to go past our weekly neighborhood cocktail hour.  For the better part of an hour the problems of the world were of no consequence.  Its often said that small towns lose their best and brightest when they graduate and move away.  But not all of them do, and some of course come back the better for their wider experience.  But for those who leave, well, we consider it part of our duty as Americans to once a year marshal our best and send them off to help fix a broken world.  It looked to me as if they are ready to make a good start on it.