The culmination of the 49th Pola-Czesky Days occurred
today on Main St. at 1pm. The Silver Lake town festival is always on the first
weekend in August, but this is the first year I’ve been able to go because,
well, I’ve never heard of it before I moved to this small town.
It all started off with a bang. Literally. The honor guard
marched by and halted just past our position and stood at attention until
ordered to raise their weapons and fire into the crowd. People screamed and
yelled and ran in opposing ways in a cacophony of misdirected chaos , but only twelve people were shot and only nine of those died. I knew I
was going to go somewhere dark when I started this paragraph, and I hope I
followed through to your satisfaction. My girlfriend argues that we should
honor those who served our country and I stated that people only die in my
fictional recount of today’s events. So, keep that in mind.
Really though, it was fascinating. The honor guard
discharged their M1903A3’s with integrity and marched on as the rest of the
parade followed. For just under an hour we watched in amazement as fire trucks,
ambulances, sheriffs and whatever the girls wearing crowns are called, passed
by single file to their own tunes. The rest of this post will be a parade of
pictures with captions that—hopefully—represent their subjects accurately.
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| The honor guard was followed closely by the Disabled American Veterans who received more applause-rightfully so-than any other float thereafter. |
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| Silver Lake is a town of just over 800 people, and by the looks of this parade, there was a fire truck for each citizen. |
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| These are called tractors. |
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| This is some sort of train engine with wheels. |
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| A hush came over the crowd as the Republican Party float cruised by. My mom noted that it was neither a bad or a good sign. Naturally, I prefer the color blue when it comes to politics because I have friends and family that are women, gay, Mexican, African American, Asian, legal, illegal, Somalian, and possibly a mix of all of those. |
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My favorite float of the day.
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So, a weekend that started on Thursday night with Polka in the Park, just ended about twenty minutes ago with the finale of the toilet bowl races that were rained out on Friday night. There was a lot of fun to be had by people of all ages. Yesterday included a kiddie carnival where the girls and their friends ran around and spent a bunch of my money on games that are normally impossible to win, but were made easier for the kids. Also, it's worth noting that the overall prices for food, beverage, and entertainment was quite reasonable. My mom got a 16oz can of fancy beer for $5 and a large portion of ridiculously perfect cheese curds were the same. I think next year could be a good time for a lot of friends and family to come by for the weekend and enjoy what our small town has to offer.
The weekend is done. The house is quiet. I'm ready for bed and it's 6:23pm. It's time for us all to wind down and get some rest. You should do the same. Have a great week!
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| A well placed sign on the side of a water tanker informing the town that the popular race had not been forgotten. |
