Wednesday, 7/5

I kinda miss doing the 4^th of July parades.

After doing them for almost 20 years, we once again skipped doing the 4^th of July parades yesterday in Ishpeming and Marquette. I was the only one in town, and we couldn't find enough people to help out, so instead of marching in one I joined several family members and watched the parade in Marquette instead. I mean, that was fun, but it was different.

It wasn't a bad different. It was just a different different.

Parade Day was always one of my busiest of the year, getting out to see our listeners and, believe it or not, getting more exercise in one day than in most days of summer (you try doing two parades literally running back & forth between sides of the street!). But after doing it for all these years I can see why co-workers want the day off; last year, the first we didn't do them in two decades, felt very weird, but also felt very nice, like you're in an entirely different world that you didn't even know existed.

So for us, the holiday is now just that. A holiday.

In total honesty, the one thing I actually miss the most is the walk up to the beginning of the Marquette parade route. I'd get home from Ishpeming, give Loraine a kiss and grab a bite to eat, and then walk to the beginning of the Marquette parade. Why did I do that? One, there's no place to park at the start of the parade route, and B, the parade ends just a few blocks from where I live, so if I had driven to the start of the parade route I'd have to walk back there to get a car anyway. This way, when the parade was over, so were my responsibilities.,

Why did I like the walk? Well, for one, because it was closed to traffic I could walk up the middle of Washington Street and not have to worry about getting hit by a pickup. Not only that, but I'd get a chance to talk to people along the way, to actually have a conversation with them for a second as opposed to just yelling “hey” as I ran past. That was nice, and a big part of why I enjoyed that stroll on a yearly basis.

So that's why I kind of miss doing the parades on the 4^th. However, as I re-discovered yesterday, it was also quite nice to have the day off, a day to just laze around and not have to head through two U.P. cities at a full sprint. And trust me—I enjoyed myself!

(jim@wmqt.com)