Fun at the Maine Lobster Festival Parade - Rockland
AJAYA'S CRUISE
Phil & Nikki Hoskins
Sun 8 Aug 2010 17:51
As an interlude to recent events we made the effort
to attend the Maine Lobster Festival parade. Americans put on great
parades - lots of marching bands, colourful trailers drawn by big Mac
trucks all adorned with fair young maidens and of course lots of
batten-twirling leg strutting majorettes. At least this is
Phil's imaginative desires kicking into full swing! So it was worth the
effort of a 5 minute stroll to the top of the road to see what was on
offer.
We could see the parade already passing
as we approached at full speed walking pace. The main street was lined with
children and adults enjoying the event and waiting to pick up some of the vast
quantity of sweets that are thrown from the floats. A characteristic of
outdoor events over here whether it's a free outdoor cinema, listening to a band
in the park or watching a parade is that spectators of more senior
status arrive fully loaded with those wonderful fold-up canvas chairs. They
actually sit comfortably for the show whilst those of us that are
unprepared for such occasions start to shuffle from foot to foot with our
backs aching after half an hour on our feet.
There were action-packed incidents - the clever
young unicyclists came unstuck as one hit a bump in the road and fell off,
and rather like the Tour de France, brought half a dozen more down moments
later. All needed help to re-mount as the bikes were about 5 feet high at the
saddle. Then a small girl being pulled along in one of those
little red plastic carts by her parents threw a tantrum just as there was a
break in the procession. Shouting that she didn't want to do it anymore she
could be heard screaming her protests down the road until drowned out by the
arrival of the next part of the parade.
So no apologies for the quantity of
pics posted - we had so many laughs in two hours especially having had a
difficult few days onboard.
The band could be heard coming miles
away!
When you have a funny costume on you make friends
easily
Fantastic old cars - what a
beautiful old red 60's Corvette Sting Ray - Phil's dream
car
It struck us after a while that these parades are
definitely adult orientated - yes, the kids get thrown the sweets and see
characters in Bugs Bunny and Spongebob Sparepants outfits (or whatever he's
called) but there was a definite leaning towards 'big kids toys' - as the
myriad of miniature vehicles with lawn mower engines driven by persons not
in the first flush of youth testified. Then add to the parade what was a
testament to popular American 'muscle cars' over the last 50 years and
beyond with Mustangs, Corvettes, Thunderbirds and Lincolns and you have a great
spectacle! It's just a shame we were standing right next to a main road drain
which is where Phil's allocation of thrown sweets disappeared
into....
Now there's an engine driver if ever
there was
one
Political campaigning is never free of risk or
embarrassment!
Men and their toy
boats
Lobster in the pot with chef in
attendance
Walmart's sombre contribution
How did they ever shrink all those old
cars?
No, not a trailer full of Tommy Cooper impersonators!
Forget health and safety - it's all
about men having
fun Just
how cool can a motor tricycle be
Looks like the one in the middle
foreground is on his
mobile! Fido
for Sheriff - free dog biscuits for all
Union Pacific just isn't what it
used to
be
Here come the unicyclists....
It was going so well ....until
..... .......
disaster struck and down they came
Finally, the parade finishes as always
with Rocky the (pre-cooked)
Lobster... ....
who then went for one of his handlers!
Great fun!
|