Wednesday, July 04, 2007

How I Spent My Fourth ...

A good friend of mine, Yon, called me up the other night and asked if I wanted to go with him to the Moorestown parade, in New Jersey. I’m not big on parades, but I haven’t really seen his place in New Jersey, and it gave me something to do. I was on the fence about it, but he sold it like a used car salesman, telling me things like “Moorestown was voted best small town in America” by some magazine a few years ago, and that this parade “would have floats, fancy cars, and great food.” What the heck, I thought.

I got to his place around 9:30, and we walked to the center of Moorestown … something he left out was that the center of town was around a 30-minute walk … not a big deal, I could use the exercise. When we got there, the place was packed with families – which is what I expected. Unfortunately, I didn’t expect a 20-minute “parade” which featured an old fire engine, and the mayor of Moorestown riding down in a convertible Corvette. Some of the highlights:

* The Moorestown running club marching down the street, with three of its members holding up billboards that had shoes glued to them that spelled out R-U-N. Every once in a while, the coach would do a figure 8 jog, with the other members following suit … thank goodness they did this, because I would never have known what running was.

* Some kind of a folk band on the back of a flat-bed playing “Camptown Races.” I’m not sure how the black population felt about this … I would’ve expected another selection.

* Everyone who drove their Corvettes in the parade … not sure what they were getting at, but these weren’t your classic Corvettes … just regular run of the mill ones.

That’s really it for the highlights of the actual parade. Even Yon admitted that it was lame. We walked to the park, hoping the town would redeem itself … boy were we in for disappointment. We get there, and hardly anything is set up, with the exception of a stage, which would probably once again welcome the “Camptown Racers.” There was stand where the local Lion’s Club was giving away free hot dogs … problem was that they were cold … and I don’t mean luke-warm, either. After about another 10 minutes, Yon suggested we go to the movies, which was fine by me – I had it up to my gills with “Small-town America.”

The movie we saw was “License to Wed,” a movie featuring Mandy Moore, John Krazinski, and Robin Williams – this was the only movie playing at the time we got there. Shockingly, the movie wasn’t bad, and Robin Williams was actually sort of funny. It’s not one I’d recommend going to see, but definitely one to watch when it hits cable in a few months.

So, that was it. Now, it’s raining, so we probably won’t go out and see any fireworks – probably we’ll just hang out and watch some movies. It’s weird when the 4th of July is on a Wednesday – can’t really drink too much, because I have work tomorrow. I think they should celebrate Independence day on the Friday of the week of the 4th of July … that’s probably a subject for another blog posting, though.

13 comments:

Snow White said...

If it's any consolation, you did more for the 4th than I did! LOL Thanks for visiting.

Snow
PS. If you liked the movie thingy on my blog, you can play... you just find the list for the year YOU turned 18. Not all of us were lucky enough to have done it in the 70's! ;-)

Jeff said...

20 min? I've waited twice that long outside bars at school -- in January. (And probably so have you!)

Could be worse. When the National Mall was evacuated during today's storm, many had to wait in a parking garage -- with Tony Danza as the payoff.

And Moorestown is WAY too close to Philly to be small-town America.

-B- said...

Sounds like you stuck out, Los.

Funny thing - that article came out a few months after we sold our condo in Moorestown.. so I guess that means that we were the riff-raff and once we left it was the best place in the country to live!!! LOL! WHat's not funny is that if we waited, we would've been able to get another $25,000 for our place. CRAP!!!!

El Padrino said...

agreed..what a dumpy day

El Padrino said...

and dont forget that nj is the armpit of america

sirgeb said...

los- we are celebrating the 4th of july on friday. can't wait to try shuttle golf- or whatever the name of that game is...

Crassius Maximus said...

I can see that the goombas in Jersey have stepped up from Z - 28s to Vettes. What next? The jump from Aqua Velva to Jovan Musk

Mama en Fuego said...

That 4th of July was about as exciting as a Tofu Sandwich.

It does seem weird to have the fourht of July in the middle of the week.

minijonb said...

We need to create some kind of strange leap day so the 4th of July is never in the middle of the week... Los, get on it on get back to me when you figure it out.

Superstar said...

What pain in my azz having th 4th in the middle of the week....LOL ;o)

Can't wait to here your suggestion...BTW I wonder if the colonies celebrated???
HMMMMM

snowelf said...

ooo...Los...that was almost painful...

--snow

Steph said...

All you needed was alcohol and that parade would have put Macy's to shame.

Alcohol cures all my friend. When will you learn??

realityCheck21 said...

How can you get sold anything having to do with Moorestown? You used to work there, ya goofball.
;-)

That parade sounds about as appealing as a wet t-shirt contest in the middle of West Virginia.