I’ve got a mild throat infection and was up till 3 a.m. last night swigging icewater to stay hydrated and bring my fever down, so the last thing I needed was to be woken this morning by a marching band. (Naturally, of course, the last thing you need is almost always the first thing you get. It’s practically an axiom.) I’m pretty far up, but it’s still damn loud, so I gave up on sleep, wrapped up in a blanket, got a bowl of Jell-O, and just watched the damn Stampede Parade from the balcony.
It was fun, I guess. I mean it would have been more fun if I’d been about six, but still. I have significant soft spots for classic cars, horsies, and Chinese dragon dancers. And the Ukranian dancers were good, and it was fun playing ‘Guess the Float’ from 350 feet up - hey, if it looks like a green UFO stuffed with bananas wearing cowboy hats, which group is that? Although I admit that some of the marching bands sent me scurrying back inside screeching “Help! Scotsmen!” There was also one marching band that I think was actually a jazz band - they had a piano - and they were on the back of a flatbed truck, which is actually pretty amusing. I guess they didn’t want to discriminate against the piano player by actually marching. (Piano guy: “Hey guys, wait up! Nnnnnnnghhh!”)
One thing, though - I’m not so far up that I can’t hear the cheering, and there was conspicuous silence from the crowds for some groups - I mean, insulting, loud silence. The Muslim group, the solar car group, the windfarm group, both First Nations groups, and a couple other predictable groups were just totally shunned. Kids didn’t wave, nobody clapped, everything. Lousy, stupid Calgary. It’s so bigoted and it’s so phony and just aarghh.
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