Old Salt
Posts: 489
Location: San Freakcisco CA area | Subject: Fourth of July in St Paul Minnesota
We are visiting with one of our sons and his family who live in the St Anthony Park neighborhood of St Paul - because the neighborhood parade originated literally across the street from his house, we sat in the front yard and watched.
Now, St Paul certainly doesn't qualify as a "small town" but the neighborhood environment here certainly gave that feeling - and for those who grew up in the streets of places like Chicago as I did, let me tell you that a small town environment feels pretty good!
Anyway, the homespun parade led off with a police car, red & blue lights, and of course, the siren --
Followed by dozens of youngsters belonging to an assortment of scouting and youth clubs, each proudly waving the American flag - and a color guard carrying the parade's official colors including the US, Minnesota, and St Paul flags.
Bystanders on the curbs placed their hats or hands over their hearts or rendered a hand salute - and whistled and cheered as the flags passed by. I saw parents bent down, instructing their 2-3 year-olds how to honor the flag.
Next came perhaps 100 (it sure seemed to be that many) oldsters in wheelchairs, also proudly bearing American flags - pushed along by members of their families, friends, whomever - also carrying American flags. Some of the oldsters wore military ballcaps including WWII, Korea, and even a couple of Viet Nam.
Then came all sorts of neighborhood adult and youth groups, and even a "Neighbors for Peace" marching group carrying "Support out Troops - Bring Them Home!" signs.
Two local fire engines trailed, lights flashing and sirens running ... and what looked like every firefighter assigned to the neighborhood station house, holiday off or not, marching along behind, handing out flags -- American Flags -- to bystanders.
In the midst of the parade - remember, Minneapolis St Paul, the "twin cities" is home to many major universities and, therefore thousands of students from foreign countries --- anyway, the "Multi-Lingual Club" had a bunch of marchers from maybe a dozen or more foreign countries -- I saw Korea, Viet Nam, Sweden, Norway, Germany, Spain, Mexico, Japan - and others. Each group proudly carried American flags plus a small plackard telling which country they were from. Can you imagine that in LA or San Freakcisco -- foreign national students carrying US flags -- properly carrying US flags, that is?
The end of the parade consisted of four kiltsters with their pipes, playing assorted John Philip Sousa marches and patriotic music as best one can on bagpipes. They were skilled - the reason I comment is that a lot of Sousa's music is incredibly difficult to adapt to pipes - maybe Doc Gardner will comment on that a bit ...
Then an unusual thing happened -- a reserve police unit hung back maybe 50 feet, lights flashing -- and everyone standing on the curb watching the parade folded into the procession immediately behind the pipers. The reserve unit kept dropping back to block for more and more people as they folded into the tail end of the parade --
We went maybe 3/4 of a mile and ended in a huge neighborhood park that the residents' association had already set up - there were grilled hot dogs and brats, soda, water, and food of every kind, and dozens of activities for the kids - from age 1 to age 100. Most families brought picnic baskets, charcoalers, even screened tends to help keep the no-see-ums away.
The US Rep as well as state legislators, county and city officials, school board, all rode or marched in the parade - but when we got to the neighborhood park replete with the traditional bandstand and speaker's podium, it was the neighborhood association president who made a few remarks and then turned the stand over to several different bands that played Suosa music as well as other partiotic songs.
Oh, yes, the ceremony at the park started with the massed bands playing the National Anthem and everywhere I looked - and I do mean EVERYWHERE - men, women, and youngsters down to toddlers who could barely stand wer standing at attention, hats off and over their hearts or rendering a hand salute.
As I walked around the park during the various programs, I never once saw one of the literally thousands of American flags given to the youngsters lying on the ground, carelessly dropped by a 3 (or 30) year old -- if the person wasn't holding his or her flag, it was neatly placed upright on a table or well into the bark of the hundreds of elm trees in the park.
Like I said - ain't small-town America one fine place? Made me glad to be 2200 miles (give or take) from San Freakcisco where the US flag was carried upside down, trampled upon, and even burned today.
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Fourth of July in St Paul Minnesota
