On July 4Th I thought I would revisit my childhood and attend the River Edge parade. I went over to my friend Jen's house and we walked up to Bogert Road to join in the fun. It wasn't quite as fun as I remembered but then again is anything?
Gone were the days of the fez wearing old guys driving little cars, now it was not so old guys riding Harley's. There were the old cars and army jeeps filled with people of importance that no one knew. The fire trucks were blaring most likely excited just to be out of the fire house. I don't think they get out much in these little towns.
One thing that was new that I don't recall them doing when we were young was giving out candy to everyone. Now that is something I would remember, free food. The only thing about that was they weren't just handing it out but they were throwing it and it was hitting people. I jumped in front of Lil Big Jack more than once to protect him from the potential on coming sugar shrapnel. That's right, I put myself in the line of fire of tootsie rolls and blow pops to protect children.
After the parade I was off to MJ & Davey's for some BBQ'in fun with the fam. It was MJ and Davey, Thomas and Lynn, Karen and Paul and our good friend of the family Gabriele.
We were sitting on the deck drinking mojitos and snacking on chips when all of a sudden this music starts playing. Now granted it was the 4Th of July and it was in the middle of the day but this was loud! So loud we could hardly hear each other from across the table. This wasn't your average 4Th of July celebration music like say John Philip Sousa or Kate Smith they were playing either. How would I describe it? For democrats I would say it was melodic top 10 dance hits from the middle east for the republicans I would classify it as jihad music from hell. I think the lead singer flew in on his magic carpet just for the party and he brought his Casio keyboard guitar player with him.
Now for those of you that have visited Oradell, NJ you know that this is not your normal run of the mill white people party. With that said one of the other neighbors from behind us started to play music to counter act or should I say counter attack their music. Toby Keith, Garth Brooks and of course Bruce Springsteen. What better way to get your point across then blasting Born in the USA. So there we are, stuck in the middle with them.
So why we were sitting there making jokes like
"What do you think they're celebrating?" response: "oil is $135.00 a barrel"
we couldn't help but notice that we couldn't stop dancing in our seats. No matter how hard we tried our arms kept going up and our shoulders would sway back and forth, our chairs would rock and our hips would shake. Someone had to go see what was going on over there...
So off they went Karen, MJ and Uncle Paulie in his Barbie jeep?
So off go the three stooges to nonchalantly see what's going on. Yeah, right!
Gone were the days of the fez wearing old guys driving little cars, now it was not so old guys riding Harley's. There were the old cars and army jeeps filled with people of importance that no one knew. The fire trucks were blaring most likely excited just to be out of the fire house. I don't think they get out much in these little towns.
One thing that was new that I don't recall them doing when we were young was giving out candy to everyone. Now that is something I would remember, free food. The only thing about that was they weren't just handing it out but they were throwing it and it was hitting people. I jumped in front of Lil Big Jack more than once to protect him from the potential on coming sugar shrapnel. That's right, I put myself in the line of fire of tootsie rolls and blow pops to protect children.
After the parade I was off to MJ & Davey's for some BBQ'in fun with the fam. It was MJ and Davey, Thomas and Lynn, Karen and Paul and our good friend of the family Gabriele.
We were sitting on the deck drinking mojitos and snacking on chips when all of a sudden this music starts playing. Now granted it was the 4Th of July and it was in the middle of the day but this was loud! So loud we could hardly hear each other from across the table. This wasn't your average 4Th of July celebration music like say John Philip Sousa or Kate Smith they were playing either. How would I describe it? For democrats I would say it was melodic top 10 dance hits from the middle east for the republicans I would classify it as jihad music from hell. I think the lead singer flew in on his magic carpet just for the party and he brought his Casio keyboard guitar player with him.
Now for those of you that have visited Oradell, NJ you know that this is not your normal run of the mill white people party. With that said one of the other neighbors from behind us started to play music to counter act or should I say counter attack their music. Toby Keith, Garth Brooks and of course Bruce Springsteen. What better way to get your point across then blasting Born in the USA. So there we are, stuck in the middle with them.
So why we were sitting there making jokes like
"What do you think they're celebrating?" response: "oil is $135.00 a barrel"
we couldn't help but notice that we couldn't stop dancing in our seats. No matter how hard we tried our arms kept going up and our shoulders would sway back and forth, our chairs would rock and our hips would shake. Someone had to go see what was going on over there...
So off they went Karen, MJ and Uncle Paulie in his Barbie jeep?
So off go the three stooges to nonchalantly see what's going on. Yeah, right!
The hostess of the party, Rose, spotted them dancing like fools in the driveway and came running over to introduce herself and invite them to join the party. My mother introduced herself and then Paul who was still in the jeep. With out batting an eye Rose bent down and shook Paul's hand. Obviously seniors must drive around in small electric cars where she comes from because this did not phase her at all. They respectfully declined her invite not because they wouldn't have liked to eat some lamb kebobs and dance but because Paul couldn't find reverse and would never be able to get home. They returned to our party where we all wet our pants with laughter.
THE END
