Parade

I went to a parade today. I sat on the road behind a line of kids and I just watched. And I snapped pictures. There were only a few floats. One float had a beauty pageant winner and the runners up, all dressed in pink gowns. They waved to all the onlookers, smiling. Occasionally a firetruck would crawl by with little kids inside. They would wave to rest of the kids, proud that they were in the parade. The children watching would stare back at the wavers, imagining themselves in their shoes. 

More floats went by.

I remembered that I was on a float, once.

I had forgotten.

A man from church was in charge of a float for the city parade. He asked if I wanted to be on it, along with some other kids. Some of us would dress up like pioneers, others would sit on beanbag chairs and read. It was a reading float.

Funny someone would want me to be on a reading float, considering the fact that I can't recall what the last book I read was.

So we were supposed to wave to people. Which I'm sure was an intimidating thing for me to do. But I waved to people. Because I was on a float.

At the end of the parade, we were driving back over to the parking lot. There were some people along the way, so I waved to them. Common courtesy. If you're on a float, wave to people. It's in the contract.

There were a couple girls who were a little older than me. Pretty girls. I waved to them as we drove by.

They gave me a look, made fun of me using the word 'stupid', and I'm sure I turned red.

But it's fine. I'm shrugging about it. I still remember who one of the girls was, though.

She's probably a parade groupie now, seeing how much fun it can be to stand on a float and wave to people.