Each year my town runs a halloween parade..and it has grown so large it runs for three full hours now. I've attended it with my children for the past six years running..it's tradition. I just wanted to reflect on some of the things we saw this year.

Instead of the traditional halloween themes..this year seemed to be overwhelming one of "God Bless America". It was more like a Fourth Of July parade than anything else. Strongly present were the Armed Forces, on floats and in themes..there was a recruiting feel to it.. but also..they were there to be applauded..and they were..loudly!

The first float of the parade had NYC Fire and Police Dept. representatives..and was followed by Port Authority Police. These people got standing ovations..and of course once again I got teary eyed at the thought. I still cry..just thinking about that day. So the whole town cheering these men..it was overwhelming.

There were floats filled with flag waving children, and statue of liberty floats, and five marching bands (we have three high schools in this town, and two middle schools)and most played patriotic songs. (which was a little disappointing since I loved our local hs bands rendition of Night on Bald Mountain each year).

Every town sends its fire dept and first aid depts vehicles..and this year there was a sign before them that said "Now you understand WHY we are here..please volunteer to your local first aid and fire dept."

Thankfully there was also still plenty of silly and wonderful halloween floats and costumes..and the creativey of some of these people astounds me! My daughters absolute favorite was a fully animated float filled with the comic book X-Men..it was just plain neat! :-) and they all throw candy..a kids dream! :-)

A good feeling parade this year..even when I got choked up. And lovely weather for us tonight. (only needed four layers of clothes and a cup of hot chocolate to stay warm ;-)

How safe we feel in our small town..too far from the big cities to be in danger..we go about our daily lives and routines with little thought to being "alert" here. For who would want to harm us? in our little town? I heard teenagers on halloween joking about anthrax as they tossed pixie stick dust at each other..it's all so far away we think. I pray that it remains thus...

-- kritter (k@a.n), October 31, 2001

Answers

If you got a mailbox, the place ain't little enough. Our kids are afraid of catching something. We've gone from telling them that our area is too unimportant to be attacked to telling them that our doctor will cure whatever we come up with. Somehow, they don't find that reassuring. Hard to please crowd, they are.

-- helen (thrax@pox.hex), November 01, 2001.

I fine parade, from your description of it.

The sad thing about terrorists (well, there are a number of sad things, and no happy things) is that there is no reason to destroy many of the things they attack: school buses, pizza parlors, playgrounds. They are cunning but not rational. They are sociopaths, devoid of conscience or civility, although they can pass for normal persons.

None of us is safe simply because there is no tactical reason to attack us. That's the whole idea of terrorism. I hope the country is more rational than the talking heads who think the "war" is taking too long.

But life must go on, in spite of wars and rumors of wars. It's a fine time to go to the video store and rent Mrs. Miniver. Fine movie. And probably not available.

Nice to hear from ya, Krit.

-- gene (ekbaker@essex1.com), November 01, 2001.