Happy Memorial Day

Today I stepped back in time to 1950. Allentown is big on parades. The town will use any excuse to throw a parade. They're nothing big or over the top like Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade. They're much smaller, charming, and old-fashioned. Like the one today. Today is Memorial Day and much preparation was taken for the parade. The streets were shut down, spectators set up chairs up and down Main Street, saving their precious spots, children sold glasses of lemonade for a nickel, and neighbors conversed and caught up over brunch buffets set up in driveways.

I woke up ten minutes before the parade started and hurriedly got dressed so I could watch. I walked up to the bakery for a pastry and some coffee and had to weave my way in between people waving American flags and dressed in red, white, and blue. I felt as if I had traveled back to a much simpler time. There's something so nostalgic about the American flag, and waving it makes me feel so proud of our country. It's like American pride is stitched right in there with the stars and stripes. I'm the first to say America isn't perfect, but watching our veterans march in the parade today, I wouldn't be anywhere else. I guess I haven't watched a Memorial Day Parade in years because in today's parade, I noticed the veterans for the first time: veterans from bygone wars marching next to veterans from the current war. It was a sobering sight for sure. That, coupled with the old-time cars, clowns, and waving flags, had me clapping and waving along with the rest of the town, seemingly oblivious to the harshness of the world, cocooned in the perfect world of Main Street, Allentown, NJ, USA. I even caught Kurt smiling a few times. It was the perfect combination of charm, simplicity, and patriotism to remind us of the men and women who have fallen in the name of our country.