And there's nothing better than having a front row, fifth floor seat to see all the wonders of the annual Columbus Day Parade here in the Magic City!
It must be chilly today, because the John Carroll High School cheerleaders all had on sweat pants. Bummer. But the band sounded nice.
Following them were the Knights of Columbus sailing down Short 20th Street in recreations of the Nina, Pinta, and Santa Maria. Or, to judge by their prime motivators, they would be better named the Silverado, Avalanche, and Bronco. Not as many beplumed guys in capes this year for some reason. I'm not sure why. But one old fellow on there was throwing out bags of treats like he was trying to break into major league baseball. Nearly took some guy's head off.
Next up was an ancient Volkswagen Baja painted up by someone advertising a candidate for the District 5 seat. Also worked pretty well as an advertisement of the dangers of deliberately concentrating and inhaling paint fumes.
Then a group of motorcycle riders. They seemed awfully uncomfortable, given that their bikes were of the hunched-forward, crotch-rocket variety, which really aren't made for low-speed parading. But, I suppose celebrating the discovery of the New World by a Spanish-financed Genoan by riding expensive Japanese superbikes makes sense. Somehow.
OOOH! FIRE TRUCKS! I like shiny things!
This completes Possumblog's coverage of the 2005 Columbus Day Parade. We now return you to your regularly scheduled program.
Posted by Terry Oglesby at October 10, 2005 12:05 PMJohn Carroll is a big deal to Catholics since he was the only Catholic signer of the Declaration of Independence. He was a major landowner in western Baltimore County, and I suppose in what's now Carroll county, here in MD.
Those of us who attended Catholic school heard about him a lot.
Posted by: steevil (Dr Weevil's bro Steve) at October 10, 2005 03:00 PMWell, we need to have a talk with him about the sweatpants.
Posted by: Terry Oglesby at October 10, 2005 04:04 PM