A Kazoo Parade

On Saturday morning, I loaded up my 2 year old to go with me for coffee and doughnuts.  On the way to the doughnut shop, I saw a sign announcing an annual kazoo parade. Apparently, it is an annual tradition in a small town.

Imagine over 400 people walking around town playing kazoos to patriotic numbers, dressed in their patriotic gear.  


I again loaded up my oldest to check out the parade after dropping off our sweet treats at home. My cappuccino sat in my cup holder and the newspaper lay on the passenger side floor. They could wait.  I had to see this.

I was almost tempted to go to the starting place-the town's high school-to walk in the parade.  But, there was no way I was walking in a parade with a kazoo touting my daughter without first checking out the event.  What if there were only 20 people in the parade?  I would have felt silly.  Of course, I certainly don't feel near as self-conscious as I would have when I find myself doing uncharacteristic things in public since having children (such as wiping boogers or picking up a temper tantrum throwing toddler to leave a store).    So I figured we would check it out this year and maybe next year walk in the kazoo parade.  It turned out that there were hundreds of people walking to the town square.

After finding that the library was closed, I parked where I thought the parade route was and hustled my daughter out of her car seat to get a look at the parade. Emmy was so excited when I told her we were going to a kazoo parade.  Em was just introduced to the kazoo at Madison's 1st birthday party.  I had put them in the children's goody bags.

Apparently, the event had a large turnout in part thanks to hometown girl Kate Micucci who talked about the annual parade on Jimmy Kimmel when she was promoting her movie When in Rome.



Micucci was apparently the "grand marshal" of sorts for the parade. At our first stop along the parade route, we missed the parade.  We only got to see a car or two drive past.  We got back in the car and drove further into town, closer to the square.  We arrived just in time to watch the first kazooers walk past.

Next year, we'll have to walk in the parade.  It turned out that there were more people in the parade than actually watching the parade.  I stood on the street corner with my daughter joined by an elderly lady on my right and three elderly folks across the street.  No one else on the sidewalks.

Emmy laughed and clapped along with the kazooers.  She loved the Jeep with the dog riding shotgun.  He looked like my mother-in-law's dog so Em thought Maggie (my mother-in-law's pooch) was in the parade.  I had to explain that he just looked like Maggie.

My daughter also liked that two people threw candy which she quickly grabbed up with her two little hands with some help from me and the white haired lady standing next to us.  When they threw the candy she just stared at it for a minute.  Then she looked at me like, "Mom did you SEE THAT.  They THREW candy...at me!"  She wanted to stuff it in her pockets but her shorts had no pockets and she refused to let the candy out of her sight.  So there she stood with it clasped in her little hands. When we walked back to the car, she put the candy into her little purse.

I explained to her that she was to little for the hard candy that she got at the parade and that we would have to give it to her Daddy.  The entire way to the grocery store, she talked about how she got her Daddy yummy candy.  I let her pick out a little bag of M&Ms at the checkout in the grocery store.  It was only fair since when we got home, she ran into the house to give her Daddy the hard candy that "she got him".

I'm off to start practicing my kazooing for next year's parade.  If I can find my kazoo.

*I had taken two pics with my camera but for some reason they still have not arrived in my email inbox from my phone.  If they ever do I will upload them.