Day 5 5/26

Happy Memorial Day. It has been a couple years since I have been to a Memorial Day Parade, it was usually tradition for my family and neighbors to go together to the one in Rome but for the past couple years we haven’t been going to the parade. So it was nice to finally go to a parade again this year. The Lansingburgh Parade is about the same size of the one in Rome. We arrived just as the parade was starting, so we broke off and went to find a place to watch the parade.

Once Krista and I found an open area we stood and waited for the parade to officially begin. While we waited we decided to talk some of the people who were also there to watch the parade. There were plenty of people around to talk to. A young women we talked to was there with her family, her husband and two children, she is actually from Lansingburgh and lived a couple of blocks away from where the parade was. She also said her and her family, when she was younger, would come to the parade every year and she wanted to continue that with her family. It impressed her that Krista and I were doing a summer semester. Another man we talked to was there with his fiancé, they had never been to the Lansingburgh parade and they heard it was a nice parade and decided to come. After talking to more people we decide to watch the parade itself.

The parade was nice not to different from other parades I have been to, fire trucks, bands and floats for the veterans. They tossed candy out like most parades do but sadly I didn’t get much candy when they were tossing it out. Although I did get excited when I saw the classic Chevy Impala,

which was awesome! I think it was a 1967, I could be wrong (supernatural reference) but it was still awesome!! One thing I noticed was a man, who was obviously a veteran, who was in a wheelchair would stand up and salute the passing officers and servicemen and women. While there was a lot of good spirits in the community, everyone being friendly and supportive, however there were some negative ones. Across the street there was a man with his family who started yelling at people for blocking his view. He then got in a yelling match with the father of a kid he was yelling at. People like that should stay home, it ruins the parade for everyone else. Luckily everything else about the day was good, especially being treated to ice cream after.