In addition to the handful of booths and food vendors there was also a family standing on the street corner in sandwich boards. And by family I mean a dad in a sandwich board, a mom in a sandwich board and three little kids in three teeny tiny sandwich boards. Ya...it was just a picture of family bonding time. Oh, and they were handing out religious tracts to go with their signs.
On the opposite street corner was another family with a message. They were holding signs that read "Patriotism is Idolatry" and "Worship God not your Country". I didn't get a pic of them but let me tell you, it was great.
We gave up on Silverton and drove to Stayton for the parade.
We parked at the cannery and were early enough that there was no one else there yet. After a short walk to A&W, which turned out to be the highlight of the day, we sat on our tailgate and waited for the festivities. As we sat and waited the lot began to fill up with other parade watchers. Soon enough we had neighbors on either side of our spot. To the left of us was a nice group of older folks that were very pleasant. However...to the right of us was what could easily be classified as one of the most annoying families. Ever. Two quite large and rather unengaged parents sat in their chairs while their three small, loud, unruly children screamed, threw rocks and argued. Every once in a while the mother would throw a "stop throwing rocks, your a bad girl" over her shoulder in the general direction of the mayhem. This would be followed by an ear splitting scream from the little girl and more rock throwing. Child rearing at it's finest.
Needless to say, it was a LONG parade. Even my kids were getting annoyed with them and making comments to me about how the parents weren't doing anything. You know it's bad when teenagers & preteens think there isn't enough parenting going on.
All of this is why right now my kids and I are sitting comfortably in our house watching a movie instead of spending anymore time 'celebrating' with other people. Happy freaky fourth!
