OC Chuck

I went to the HB Parade on the 4th for the first time in years. We went to a friend of a friend’s house who lives on the route – I finally took them up on the offer. My preference in the past has been to celebrate by sleeping in, but my wife wanted to take the kid to the parade. We had a good time at a great location (thanks Taylors!). One thing of note: every time a military group went by, most people in the crowd on both sides of the street stood and applauded. It was nice to see (and do) that. Some of the groups were American Legion, Pearl Harbor Survivors (it seemed there were still quite a few), WWII Vets, Vietnam Vets, recent returnees from Afghanistan, and a reenactment group.

There was a group of four people in the parade displaying a “give peace a chance” banner that the crowd pretty much ignored, and a delegation of about 50 “Democrats in Orange County.” I wondered aloud if that were all of the democrats from OC. One could only hope...

My wife told me later she overheard a conversation from some teens where one asked another, “What is POW-MIA?,” pronouncing it as a word (there were a number of vehicles with those flags). After a bit, she had to explain that it meant “prisoner of war” and “missing in action.” Seemed sad that they didn’t know. She had a Vietnam MIA bracelet in High School (her dad was retired Navy).

We’ll probably go again next year.