The recent Fourth of July three-day weekend was an opportunity for family and friends to gather and for the generations to connect, whether on the path around the Falls or some distance from the path. Traditions include picnics, parades and fireworks, among so many other things.
With the prevalence of social media, many traditions are shared. Given the time of the year, many of those traditions are water related. They could be riding the Ducks or experiencing a zip line at Wisconsin Dells, a pontoon boat parade at Kelly Lake, jumping off a bridge at Townsend. The list goes on and on.
For this observer, it was a chance to spend several days with a son and 15-month-old grandson in New York City. It’s not the typical Independence Day destination, but a special time nonetheless.
Perhaps the highlight of the Fourth was a parade in Milltown, New Jersey.
There were parades in countless communities across this proud nation.
This particular one was chosen because son Matt had an invite to play sax with one of his bands on a float in the parade. The prediction was a 100 percent chance of rain for the 10 a.m. parade start, but the weather people got it 100 percent wrong.
The band set up on a beautiful flatbed semitrailer designed for transporting earthmoving equipment. Parade watchers in the Midwest are used to seeing dolled up semitractors in parades, so this didn’t seem to be anything out of the ordinary. In what turned out to be a huge parade that stretched out over an hour, this was the only semi in the entire parade.
Many organizations were represented. It seemed that the majority of the units were firetrucks and other emergency vehicles. With the denser population of the East Coast, there are many more emergency units, and it seemed that their crews love to be in parades.
With young Gerald in his stroller, we got preferential seating on a sidewalk with some nice steps for the old man to rest his bones. Like many parades, lots of candy was thrown from the parade units or handed out by people walking the parade. More than once, one of those walkers would ask, “He’s too young for candy, right?” Next year it will be a different answer.
Watching the parade went well until near the end where dozens of the emergency units brought up the rear and performed what seemed like a symphony with sirens of many different sorts. What they had in common was lots of volume. A 15-month-old can only take so much of that. He soon provided some harmony with his own wailing. It took no small amount of time of rocking and walking to calm him down.
Speaking of walking, this observer had a chance to do a little generation connecting by walking. Son Matt comes in at 6 foot, 8 with his shoes on.
Grandson Gerald just broke the 32-inch mark, a big boy, but less than half Dad’s height. This can be a challenge for walking hand-in-hand down a sidewalk. The only way they could connect would be if Matt would stoop over while walking, not a comfortable posture for a guy still recovering from major hip damage in an auto accident a year ago.
Granddad came to the rescue during this visit. Given a somewhat shorter stature, walking hand in hand with a young grandson was no challenge, and we did a lot of it.
Connecting the generations can be a challenge in a number of different settings. Often that happens in the school business. Parents with youngsters in school have lots of interest and want the best educational opportunity for their children. Grandparents might share that same feeling. With people who don’t fit in either category, it might be a different story.
“If I don’t have kids or grandkids in school, why should I care?” might be the line of thinking for some.
For people in the school business, the challenge is to make the case as to why they should care. The flippant response is “So they can get a good education, get a good career, and pay our Social Security.”
More to the point, as Thomas Jefferson once said, “An honest heart being the first blessing, a knowing head is the second.” It is advice worth heading during this patriotic holiday.
Having grandchildren or not, investment in our public schools is an investment in everyone’s future. We hope the generations won’t fail to make that connection as we ask for everyone’s support in August.
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