Torchlight Parade | Spokalulu

Carnage in the Colosseum

Friday morning, it hit me that I’d double-booked SnakeMaster, asking him to be in 2 places at once: his Boy Scout troop was expecting him to be loading his gear and himself into a vehicle prior to 5:30pm, while his grandparents were coming to town and expecting him to show them around at his school Science and Social Studies Expo from 6:00 to 7:30pm. Oops! Since Grandma had given up something else important to her in order to be with us on Friday night, SM agreed that he would stay with us for the Expo and then we would drive him out to the campsite. At the time, we didn’t know that was committing us to a 2.5 hour round-trip commute, but least it was a lovely drive.

Aren’t 6th grade boys fun?!

No humans or animals were killed in the production of the Roman studies unit. Just so you know.

The next day was Armed Forces Day. Unless you are somehow connected to the U.S. military, you probably didn’t know that the 3rd Saturday of May is always Armed Forces Day.
Consider yourself educated. 😉

Here in town was the 74th anniversary of the annual Lilac Festival Armed Forces Torchlight Parade, the largest parade of its kind in the USA. (That info is courtesy of the local news station — I didn’t make it up!)

We caught sight of the Queen, a number of princesses, and even some former presidents!

There were floats, marching bands — including the one in which Humorous-Juniorous is a member — and yes, plenty of purple for the Lilac Festival along with plenty of military presence. There is an Air Force base just outside of town, but all branches of service were represented.

There were veterans of the Vietnam war, Korean War, Gulf War, and the Global War on Terror (BWT). There were Gold Star families, World War II veterans, and survivors of the attack on Pearl Harbor. Each color guard, each unit, each and every military group that walked in the parade was cause for everyone lined up on the streets to stand.
I know this is true because we didn’t go downtown until 45 minutes before the parade started, which put 6 rows of people in front of us. (Luckily, I’m tall.) Some folks had been there since 9am, staking out a front-row seat.