Once a year, each Sunfest weekend provides the community of Castlegar with a parade. In a sense, it’s a watcher’s paradise as the floats,vehicles and bands pass by. And it’s all the better if the weather cooperates as it did this year.
Some years, Sunfest turns into a botched festival because the sun can’t be found and rain splashes the best efforts of those exhibiting in theparade. Those years, a lot of people stay home rather than venture out in the wet. Not this year though, as the crowds lined Columbia Ave.from one end of the parade route to the other.
In the past, we’ve often been late to secure our spot along the parade route, and thus, have had to stand behind people and look overheads. In fact, on this parade day at 9:30 a.m. as we entered the parade route area, people were already sitting on fold-out chairs andsquatting on curbs.
We went far enough down Columbia so that the waiting viewers were still just a few here and there. We hauled our lawn chairs, ourgrandchildren’s miniature chairs, and my son’s folded up wooden chair to a place with mid-morning shade. In addition, we carried bottlesof water and a large golf umbrella.
We also brought plastic gathering pails for each of our grandkids. Apparently for children, parades are not being held for them to watch thespectacle and gaze in wonder, but for them to acquire as much candy as possible. All the children from a year in age to twelve had plasticbags ready in anticipation of candy being thrown from the passing vehicles.
When I watched parades when I was young, no one threw out any goodies. Maybe a church or an organization handed out flyers as theyrambled by. Even when we used to take our own kids to parades some thirty years ago, only one or two floats had candy to toss. Now,there’s so much wrapped candy tossed that all of the kids go home with bagfuls. My grandkids each had a pailful.
Many of the people arriving to find a spot were looking for shade. Others didn’t seem to care about the scorching sun. A number of familiesdecided to set up camp in the sunshine on the far side of the street. They found their way into the parking lot and backed into place withtheir rear car doors facing the street. The back doors were popped and all sorts of paraphernalia for watching a parade appeared. Some ofthese, such as half tents, were used simply to beat the heat that people on that side of the street experienced.
When the parade finally appeared, there was quite an array of display vehicles. In terms of actual floats, there weren’t as many as mostwould have liked. The parade was dominated by vehicles with not much decoration. These were in the parade simply to advertise theirproducts or businesses. One huge truck thundered by with several large pieces of equipment. However, the children on the floats, thevisiting royalty from other cities, and two bands made it all worthwhile.
My grandkids were fascinated with the older costumed kids strolling along with their collection of squirt guns. As they passed on by, theseparade troopers sprayed water at some of the viewers. Although no one was inundated with water, they certainly got a bit wet, including me.
When all the fire trucks, search and rescue vehicles, and ambulances ended the parade, my granddaughter would not believe the parade wasover. Even though it was a fairly long parade, she kept looking for more.
