Labor Day

[countrycousin]

Really hadn't intended many personal posts, but this was special.


My town makes a big deal out of Labor Day.  There used to be a lot of worker-intensive manufacturing here; most of it has gone, now.  But we still have a three day festival with entertainment, lots of sites of one sort or another (informational, food, gambling to support various Good (tax exempt) Causes).

And on Monday, a big parade. We have a local military college - they send their entire corps of cadets to march.  Old autos. Newer autos. Various floats, not quite up to Tournament of Roses standards, but clever and well-done nonetheless.  Many of the local tax-exempts do a lot of fund raising over this weekend.  DW and I are involved with many and normally have a busy weekend helping out, except Sat. and Sun. nights there are dance bands and we attend.

This year was different.  In early Aug, DW was at an offspring's house helping out while offspring recovered from an operation to reset a year-old fracture that hadn't healed.  I got a call to help out the Labor Day committee with historical info.  Not my thing, and I said so, but glad to help.  Big con.  Meeting was to inform us that we had been selected as this year's grand marshalls.

Trying to suppress flashes of "A Long Kiss Goodnight", I called DW to let her know, and released ourselves to the current.

Bottom line - we had a great Monday.  We are energy-conscious; we were delighted that we didn't parade in a limo; we paraded in a horse drawn surrey (with a fringe on top!). The horses are magnificent.  They came to pick us up.  We live in the middle of a somewhat steep hill (average for VT) - didn't phase them a bit.  They went to the top, turned around and came back to pick us up.  Then they took us to the assembly point, took us down most of the parade route (to the reviewing stand, where we Reviewed).  (I'm not sure it used much less energy, but at least much of it was renewable!)  I tried to wave particularly to little kids - frankly, most of them had eyes directed 15 feet forward.  They knew what was special!

This business motivated some family to come to the festivities; it was good to see them again;  they all seemed to have a great time.

There are lots of festival exhibits.  One done by the Ambulance crew is a dunking station.  A victim sits over a tub of water.  People pay to get some balls to hurl at a target.  Hitting the target hard enough releases the victim's seat support, and the victim drops into a tub of water.

This year, I volunteered to do a stint as victim.  I had been thinking about it, but this year I did it.

Showed up in jacket, pressed slacks, dress shirt, tie & tie clip.  I am a local bigwig (less-small frog in small pond) (in addition to being marshall), but the ambulance volunteers are from the local college and hadn't the slightest idea who I was and cared less.  Fortunately the supervisor showed up while I was waiting my turn (he showed up to add some warm water - did again during my shift - excellent man!) and cued the person with the bullhorn.   So I got brisk business (including DW :<) ).

I am getting older, much less cold-tolerant, and was very concerned about my ability to last my half-hour shift.  The dress clothes had a practical basis - I had stuff underneath that I hoped would cut down heat loss.  It worked well enough - I made it through, only slightly cool toward the end of the shift.  But I think the credit is more due to the staff's adding cold warm water; I very much appreciated their efforts.   The primary noticeable effects the next day were some sore leg muscles that let me know that they'd had to do a lot more climbing out of pools than they'd been asked to do in a while.