funnystrange.com

On Friday my friend Patricia wrote to me about a neighborhood parade in Raleigh called Kirby Derby that was taking place Saturday. I wrote to them (no phone number on the website) and believe it or not, they let me in the day before!

Saturday morning I did a bunch of repair work on some of the carpet that had gotten ratty. I thought I had given it enough time to dry, but apparently not. When I headed out for the parade, the strips of new carpet one by one flew off the car! What a bummer. I had to keep warning people not to lean on the exposed glue that was left behind.

Patricia and I had made plans to ride together in the Clayton (her hometown) holiday parade last year, and I had made the mermaid tail just for her, but due to circumstances beyond her control she didn't make it. Well I rode in the Clayton parade by myself and had fun, though I would have had more fun if Patricia had been there. Anyway I still have the mermaid tail so I brought it for her, she was really excited about it. She wore a bikini top so she would look even more like a mermaid. She's almost as short as I am so she had to crouch up in the seat for the effect to work, but it was worth it, she looked terrific. I teased her that she should have worn a clamshell bikini but she didn't know where to find one. We had such great fun! She's a good person to have with you on a parade -- not shy at all, really engaged the crowd. It was dark and drizzly throughout the event, but didn't start pouring until ten minutes after we left. What perfect timing!

The parade was small -- they said 30 entries but I only saw about a dozen and a half -- and short, only two blocks long, but loads of fun. They were late getting started so we had over an hour to hang out in the lineup area. These guys on bikes were right in front of us. After they posed for my photo, they asked me to take photos of them with their cameras -- three in all! Each one was different so I think I messed up a number of the photos, but I took a bunch with each camera so I hope I got at least one decent shot for each of them.

Behind us were these guys who called themselves "The Bomb Squad: Homeland Insecurity." They were a lot of fun. They kept talking to each other on their walkie talkies (even though they were all standing together), describing other parade entries as they arrived. And they had an old school boom box on which they played the Beastie Boys and did some old school moves. When we started rolling, one of the bicyclists ahead of us fell off her bike. The Bomb Squad came running forward shouting "Secure the area!" and helped her up. Luckily she wasn't hurt.

Then these other guys showed up wearing orange shirts that said "Monkey Pyle" and attacked the Bomb Squad. First they threw Twinkies at them (still in wrappers, thank goodness) and then they started tackling Bomb Squad members. It was pretty crazy. I tried to get photos but the light was so dim I couldn't get a decent exposure & everything came out blurry. One of the Monkey Pyle guys came over and asked a little girl who was talking to us if she would throw a Twinkie at them during the parade, but she refused. We asked him what "Monkey Pyle" means and he explained that it means when everyone jumps on top of somebody in a big pile. I thought that was a dogpile, as in "Dogpile on the rabbit!" (which is, of course, from the "Tree Grows in Brooklyn" Bugs Bunny cartoon.) But apparently the expression changes depending on the part of the country.

Besides the rowdy Bomb Squad and Monkey Pyle, there was a poor goat which had to wear baby shoes, a bib and a diaper. The goat kept kicking off the shoes, so finally they cut the bottoms out so they could fit the shoes over his feet but his hooves still touched the ground. That seemed to mollify the goat.

Also this little boy dressed like Caeser, who was pulled along by the two dogs in a Roman chariot! My big regret of this event was that I didn't get to see the boy riding in the chariot. But that's the problem with being in parades: you only get to see the entries right before you and right after you, nothing else.

After I turned on the bubble machine these little girls hung out by my car for a while. The girl in white asked Patricia tons of questions about her mermaid identity, but Patricia had an answer at the ready for every one! (For instance, when the girl asked Patricia why, if she was a mermaid, she had legs, Patricia responded "Because I'm on land! Didn't Ariel get legs when she went on land?") Everyone was impressed. I took a picture of her with the mermaid tail, and offered to send her the photo if her mother would give me their email address. But I think she forgot to tell her mother.

This guy came out dressed like a scary cat, with lots of duct tape on his costume. But he wouldn't hold still for a photo. In fact he started jumping around more when he saw my camera.

The stars of the event were the Evil Clowns. They rode in an ice cream truck painted in stripes, with "Evil Clowns from Hell" written on the side. They had a huge entourage, including robots, a lucha libre, and a guy dressed like an evil monkey with a leather harness. It was a bit edgy for a parade with so many kids involved, but they managed to stay just on this side of the edge from what I saw.

The parade itself was on a very narrow street, crammed with people. It was a bit scary! We went around three times, and each time we had to inch forward, waiting for people (mostly kids) to get out of the way. Everyone was really nice and cheered us really loudly. One guy even walked up with a bunch of silk flowers and set them on the hood! That almost made up for the bratty kid with the Super Soaker water gun who got Patricia's hair all wet. She told the Bomb Squad to go get the kid, and they promised to clear the area of all hostile forces.

Anyway, an event like this was just what I needed to get my art car enthusiasm going. Less than a month now until Artscape. Good golly, I've got to get to work!