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The following article was posted on July 7th, 2010, in the New Times - Volume 24, Issue 49 [ Submit a Story ]
The following articles were printed from New Times [newtimesslo.com] - Volume 24, Issue 49

I love a parade!

Cheesy goodness in Cayucos

BY GLEN STARKEY


WHAT YEAR IS IT?
The Cayucos 4th of July Parade is like stepping back in time.
PHOTO BY GLEN STARKEY

YOUNG AMERICANS
A young couple passes a huge flag on their way to the parade.
PHOTO BY GLEN STARKEY
No place puts on a 4th of July parade like Cayucos. It’s the most awesome, hokey, corny, wonderful parade ever! It’s a page ripped from the Norman Rockwell playbook, where cutesy charm and endearing nostalgia collide.

The event reminds me of my Wisconsin childhood and the neighborhood parade we had in Madison. We kids would decorate our bikes, trikes, and wagons with crepe paper, bedecking our spokes with playing cards, dragging old soup cans attached with twine, and we’d circle the block, ending in the pocket park in the center of our neighborhood for a good, old fashion barbecue. As dusk fell, out came the sparklers.


SPPP-BOING!
A kid on a pogo stick wowed the crowd with his antics.
PHOTO BY GLEN STARKEY

WONDER YEARS
A cowboy-hatted tyke gazes in amazement as the parade rolls past.
PHOTO BY GLEN STARKEY
That same naïveté is at work here in Cayucos, where half a dozen kids on Razor scooters sport red, white, and blue-dyed Mohawks; where a cadre of grass skirt-clad, boogie board-carrying ladies offer a synchronized dance routine to live music played off the back of a pickup truck; where a menagerie of circus freaks skip down the boulevard; where a guy on a tall bike circles around floats; where unicyclists wave flags and do tricks for the crowd; where a kid with a pogo stick can steal the show with his antics.


CALIFORNIA GIRL
A hula girl watches the rest of the parade after her group finishes their hula duties.
PHOTO BY GLEN STARKEY
A parade like this is almost enough to make you forget the recession, the oil leak, the two wars, the growing legions of homeless. Almost.

 

Glen Starkey takes a beating and keeps on bleating. Keep up with him via twitter at twitter.com/glenstarkey, friend him at Myspace.com/glenstarkey, or contact him at gstarkey@newtimesslo.com.
Live well and eat right Healthy schools, healthy futures - THRIVE's pilot program combines food distribution with education in effort to instill better nutritional habits Camp 4 proposal has some valley locals up in arms The awards have arrived County sues Walmart over property Economic summit details a sluggish rebound JROTC is the latest victim of school budget cuts