Saturday, August 1

Had trouble going to sleep again last night...it was 2:30 a.m. the last time I checked the clock before finally drifting off. I sure wasn't ready to get up at 7 a.m., and I've been bleary-eyed all day.

The reason I didn't sleep later this morning is because Hubbie and I wanted to take the truck downtown and park it in a space on Main Street suitable for viewing a local festival parade. Hubbie drove the truck, and I drove the van to pick him up after he got the truck parked.

Things, though, didn't quite go off without a hitch. I was in the lead, in the van, with Hubbie following me in the truck. I turned down the street I usually do to get to our favorite parking lot, but when I arrived, I found the lot was completely full.

So I turned around in the lot and headed back up the street. At the next intersection, I turned right....onto a one-way street going left! Yikes! How had I managed that? It's not like I don't thoroughly know the downtown streets. I zipped into a nearby parking lot and turned back up the street, going the right way this time. Embarrassing. I'm sure glad there wasn't any traffic on that street this morning.

I traveled around the block, down a couple of blocks, and then turned right onto another street, hoping to intersect with Main Street...but this street was blocked at the intersection. Hubbie was right behind me, so I was hemmed in. A lady standing at the corner kindly pulled the block back a little so I could go around it. I headed down Main Street, but whipped into a parking space when I noticed that Main Street was barricaded about a block away. Hubbie whipped into the space beside me.

We weren't sure why we were running into so many blockades, but within minutes, we found out, when a starter gun went off and about 200 people came sprinting over a hill and down Main Street. Once the runners had passed, we were able to pull out of the parking spaces, travel a half block down Main Street and turn into City Hall parking lot. There, finally, Hubbie found a space facing the parade route.

Back home, I had a breakfast of peaches and bananas, with buttered toast, and a glass of milk, but I skipped my exercises, so I could get ready to go to the parade. Mother came over a little after 9 a.m., and we headed to town around 9:30.

We found a convenient space to park the van at City Hall, and we all walked to the truck. The space the truck was parked in was ideal for watching the parade. We were seated high enough to see clearly over the heads of folks seated in lawn chairs on the sidewalk. Also, the parade judges must have been close by, because the floats slowed in front of us, and the cheerleaders and others stopped to perform in full view of our truck. It was like having box seats.

The theme for the parade was Route 66, and there were some cute floats in keeping with the theme. My favorite parade entry, though, was a colorful Scimitar Shriners calliope wagon featuring an automated organ playing riverboat music. A clown was at the keyboard, pretending to play.

We also enjoyed the baby and little girl beauty pageant winners, some swathed in dresses with yards and yards of ruffles, and little sparkly tiaras on their heads.

The parade ended just as it began to rain. The inclement weather didn't bother those gathered near the end of the parade route, though, since they were engaged in the water war zone, where water pistols were firing away, as the participants were sprayed with water from a fire engine and other vehicles equipped to douse the crowd.

We got back home in time for a lunch of PB&J sandwiches, after which we relaxed for a while before going to a program at the museum at 2 p.m. Two men who used to dive local rivers for mussel shells and pearls talked about their business, and their adventures under water. They brought along various mussel shells that they identified for us, as well as lots of tiny pearls in a variety of shapes and colors. Also shown were a modern wet suit, and a very heavy and cumbersome diving helmet fashioned from a hot water tank, which was used by divers in earlier days.


Diving for mussel shells and pearls is over right now, because of a decline in mussels due to over-harvesting and destruction of habitats from dams along the rivers, and because the current economy has created a decline in demand. Also, some mussels are on a government protection list and cannot be harvested. The haydays for pearling and mussel shelling in our area were from 1897 to 1970, with a short resurgence in the mid 90s.

Back home, we fixed baked potatoes and bagel pizzas for supper. Mother went home after that, and Hubbie and I relaxed in front of TV.