I dashed off a quick retort in a letter to the editor and didn’t give the idea of a parade another thought. That is until the morning of July 4th when, on our way to The Copper Skillet, my friend and I ran across two men tying yellow ribbons and hanging flags along a main street pitifully lacking in either.
I don’t know if Rick Parker was being facetious when he wrote his article because this simple act of patriotic pride on the part of two anonymous men spurned our asking anyone we encountered since, “when was the last time Martinez had a 4th of July Parade?” In the collective conscience of all the responses gathered no one could remember there ever being such an event.
I had two choices; pass the buck and say to myself someone should do something or take my own advice in that letter and do it myself. So here goes nothing. We already have an initial pledge of $2000 towards the costs of event insurance and essential city personnel. I am meeting with the organizer of the City of Concord’s parade Friday, July 18th. We’ll walk the proposed route and strategize on staging areas, while I get a high level overview of the scope of what organizing a parade entails.
Okay because I’m going to be the one organizing the event, I’m allowing myself one dictatorial caveat, the theme for the first of what I expect will be many 4th of July Parades will be “A Salute To Our Armed Forces”. With a son, Noel, and a daughter, Krsytal, currently serving in our nation’s Navy I figure I’m allowed. Even if we have a beaver or two show up and march, I expect they’d feel quite comfortable in a sailors cap. Otherwise I’m pretty open to hearing from the residents of Martinez with their ideas and suggestions and of course donations but more on that later.
I may go off on rabbit trails, or should I say beaver creeks (?) on occasion just to keep things interesting but for the most part I’ll be using this format like a diary to chronicle our excursion into parade planning so we can develop a cookie cutter plan that can be used for similar celebrations.
Hold onto your seats Martinez, we’re going to have a parade! And the next time you see Rick roaming around, shake his hand; after all he’s the one who lit the fire.
Linda
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2 comments:
Hi Linda, I just say "Linda" because it doesn't look like many people are responding to the blog. Tom and Terri Coleman here, just wanted to add to your interest in the July '09 parade... and more. First of all, we think a parade in town is a wonderful idea, one that adds to community spirit and self respect, something we really need here in town. Where to start? We have volunteered over the years in minor ways, from Alhambra boosters events, Doggy Diner,
AHS registration & grad night. We work on trails and the Fresh Aire Affair for the Muir Heritage Land Trust and field a "team" at the Relay For Life. Not a great deal of time but it's something. Now here's the rub, with as much effort that we and many, many others put into all things Martinez, we cannot put a dent in the persistent, negative psycological impression locked into the psyche of our friends in the surrounding central county communities. Should we care? Of course we should, it really is a matter of community self respect when folks from outside our city want to come share our special days with us. Example, we have been to many free weekly community music events this summer, kind of our version of the staycation. Everywhere from Lafayette to Concord, Clayton, San Ramon, Moraga and of course Art In The Park. All of these events were well attended, mostly by families with children in the 4 to 12 year old range. People have been respectful of each other and the environment for children has been wholesome and safe. Sadly, we can't say this for our own Art in The Park. Don't get it wrong here, ATP was probably as good or better than it's ever been this year, but being a one time event, not well promoted outside of town, and a crowded area at the front of the stage not conducive for comfortable family enjoyment, and lack of traffic control on the streets. We tried to inform many out of town friends that ATP was worth checking out, but no takers. Here's why, I think. On many occasions we have been successful at dragging friends to town by boasting of our classic Americana Main Street, the local music and art scene, beautiful natural surrounds, but almost every time they came, something was seen, heard or experienced that was just over the line in that ever so personal, comfort zone. Wether it's people smoking right at the entrance to a resaurant, a homeless person stretched out across the sidewalk, the smell of urine as you pass by the doorway to Man Street businesses or the incredibly low life behavior of a male/female couple hurling epithets at one another across a downtown street. How do we contend with this? Really, we are at a loss! It is these types of things that will prevent Martinez from breaking out of this tail chasing cycle we are in, and no amount of citizen particpation organizing event after event will overcome it. We've lived here 28 years and have no intention of leaving but we are growing weary of promising our friends that Martinez has a bright new future, just around the corner. So, we whole heartedly support your energy and enthusiasm but hate to see you get let down in the process. One thing that must be done is the engagement of our police force to an all new level. It will work. Having worked for the City of Benicia for 27 years I can say without a doubt, a tough police presence and willingnes to confront suspicious persons makes a real difference. I'm not a cop and not some gun toting red neck, but our town needs this presence now. If it means supporting an emregency services tax assessment, we are so in, and it would be paid back ten fold in property values.
OK, I'll wrap it up by saying we participated in the first and second years of the soapbox derby and had a blast. They let two people in different age groups race the same car so our daughter and I both got to race. This event was unique in that it wasn't an official SoapBox event which gets very technical and is an all weekend event in itself, but rather more of an "all comers" affair where a 5 year old could drive down a shortened hill. A lot of fun but lacking organization which in turn made it go on way too long, losing spectators. A possible way to avoid this is to run preliminary eliminations early in the morning with final races just before or after the parade. Just one more thought, what about a "Whacky Human Powered Race" for Martinez? The town of Fortuna has been doing this for years with great success and there is nothing else like it in the bay area!
OK, done. May your children and all of our sons and daughters return home safe, soon.
Tom and Terri
Thank you Terri and Tom! I'm not surprised that people aren't 'talking' yet. The whole internet blog thing can be a little scary if you've participated and have been flamed.
I like the suggestion about breaking up the derby into two segments. I really like the Whacky Human Powered idea. I think that would be one sure fire way to grab media attention, read 'free publicity'!
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