the doopa

This weekend we went to Wenatchee for the APPLE BLOSSOM FESTIVAL!!!!

Friday night we hit town around 9:30 and headed for Bob's Classic, smackinahearta CRUISIN' territory. (Cruising is so funny to me. There was always CRUISING on the weekends on Broadway in Portland. Shortly after I moved to Seattle, I was informed that this made Portland a small town, or somewhat hickish. If there's cruising in Seattle, it's not happening on Fifth Ave.) So Wenatchee IS a small town, and at Apple Blossom, they cruise. There were some phat hoopties, lemme telya. Low-rider trucks and souped-up Mustangs and purple halogen lights in the undercarriages aimed at the street... But the streets weren't as jammed as they have been in past years. We drove straight to Bob's and found a spot in the parking lot right up front, next to a circa 1975 Mazda with $8,000 wheels. The car was painted in gray primer and the bumper was falling off. One of MSH's friends owns Bob's, so two other friends were working the door as bouncers. They didn't bounce much while we were there, though--the most crisis-related incident happened when two young lasses came up and asked us for Bandaids, to soothe one girl's blisters--she had been walking around for hours in flip-flops. Bouncer Scott came to the rescue. We went inside and had some beers (Shirley Temple for me) and mozzarella sticks while the two bouncers took turns going back to Scott's car and chugging beers. We were waiting for Madam M to show up, but she never did, so we went home at 11:30. I guess later in the night, our friends the bouncers observed but did not interfere with a fisticuffs in the parking lot between two young hooligans.

I realize now I've spent a lot of space on an evening where not much happened. I apologize.

Now the next day was more eventful--MSH left early to golf, and his mom and brother and I went to the Stemilt Growers' APPLE BLOSSOM PARADE!!! His mom had obtained tickets for the "PRIME SEATING" at the beginning of the parade. The warm-up for the parade included the Seattle Police Motorcycle Drill Team, which was pretty cool. Then there was lots of squinting and craning of necks at the sky before finally the Navy Seals parachutists (three of them) jumped out of a plane. They did acrobatic tricks on the way down, and one of the Apple Blossom princesses sang the national anthem as they descended and finally bippity bopped their landings in the ball field right behind our bleachers. There were also two separate deafening cannon shots. An auspicious beginning!

The best part of the parade for me, alumna of a marching band, was the marching bands!!! All the bands were pretty small, except for Wenatchee High's, but some of them were REALLY good--tight musically, great drum lines, full of energy and pep, and excellent music choices. Only two were really dismal. It's really not the size of the band, it must be the strength of the program, and/or the director, or the drum majors. My two favorites were Othello High School and Klahowya Secondary School. The latter I assume is in Canada, from the nomenclature.

There were two entries from Shrine Temples that cracked me up--Shriners in red mini-Mustang cars--little toy cars! and one on mini-motorcycles--both of them doing maneuvers in formation, dodging between each other. Hilarious. Big men, little vehicles.

I love a parade.