Well say goodbye it’s Independence Day
It’s Independence Day all boys must run away
So say goodbye it’s Independence Day
All men must make their way come Independence Day
Springsteen, Independence day
Our town, like thousands of others around the nation, staged a July 4 Parade yesterday. I didn’t know what to expect, but what I got managed to move me deeply.
Here are just some of my visual impressions of the day.
These images represent only a fraction of what was on display. There were, for instance, some 30 individual fire engines at least in the parade from all the surrounding towns (even one from Arizona – the pink one). There was also an amazing sellection of classic cars and vintage John Deer tractors to feast the eye upon. Sadly, I’m dangerously close to running out of storage space on my WordPress account (not sure what I’m going to do about that) so I was forced to leave a lot out.
The day was remarkably poignant and uplifting in equal measure. I hope to see many more like it.
Happy Birthday, America.
All images used in this post are my own.
©2017
Runaway American Dream 
We’re not real big on parades but we did spend the day by the water. We wandered antique shops (including old vinyl albums and Beatles artifacts like the ‘Flip Your Wig’ game), ate fried dough, watched a country band a funk band, a junior high school band and an orchestra that played the time-honored Americana stuff. Then we watched a terrific fireworks show, got in our car and sat there not moving for one solid hour. But, all worth it. Nice to see that America can still come together on its birthday, divided as we currently are. No overt political statements from the stage but a few of the local politicians seemed to emphasize how this is an inclusive country for all without naming names.
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Sounds like you had a pretty great day. Nice to see music featured heavily. I’m not really a parade kind of guy either as a rule but this one -right in my own street- was worth the sunburn.
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See, a parade on my street. Now that would be totally worth it. We’ve been seeing this same orchestra for years. The leader can sometimes be a little dickish. Last year he informed the crowd that we “should” be listening to classical music and he’d play it for us like it was medicine. Hell, we’re not that smart. We just wanna here ‘Star Wars.’
BTW, what do you think might be the solution to the WP space problem? Archive or (heaven forfend) delete older stuff? Or do you think you’ll have to pay?
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I’m toying with seeing if I can just do a second blog (Runaway American Dream II? Dogs on Main Street?). I know that would entail building my audience again but my finances -after the insane amount of money we’ve shelled out getting me to the US- are not great right now. And I still have no idea when I’m going to be allowed to work. I just can’t justify spending the money at this point.
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A second blog? Hmm, not a bad idea. If I had more time to spend, I might split off a second one for just new music. Otherwise, raising money? Crowdfunding. Totally joking here but I just read about a guy who raised millions to make a documentary. I forget which one it was.
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After what you said about space, I checked my own. I can use up to 3GB but I’ve used maybe one percent of that. I think you and I have been blogging about the same amount of time. (November 2015 for me.) How the hell did you use up so much space? I think I post more frequently than you. Is it possible there’s some glitch?
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I think it’s all the photo’s. I may have to go through and replace them all with lower rez versions.
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Oh yeah, right. Forgot about that. That makes sense. Maybe that’s the easiest option. Relatively speaking.
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enjoyed the parade….thx tony…..also the vinal haven one w bess and pat….played ‘independence day’,on loop, at a friends funeral back in the 90s
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It’s a great track, M.
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Interestingly, our little town doesn’t have a 4th parade, just Memorial Day. Definitely change your photo file sizes. That should help.
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Yeah, I think you’re right, Mark.
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