the parade

 I love dealing with ideas of duality in my artwork.  Pairing up ideas and characteristics that are not normally associated with one another is fun for me.  When we moved to Laurens I had no idea that this was a town of dualities.  The "historic" public square that seems to be falling in on itself in some areas is fully equipped as a video surveillanced, wi-fi hot spot.  I noted this while sitting in the square waiting for the Christmas parade to begin last Saturday.

 There's always such a wide spectrum of people types at these events, the people watching parade started long before the decorated floats arrived.  G and I herded the kids and tried to keep them on the curb as the real parade began. 

 The kids share my lack of tolerance for noise.  Sirens, fireworks, loud music force their reflexes to push their hands up around their ears.  This is especially funny when someone is singing.

 This posed a bit of a problem for them when the candy starting raining down from the floats.  I was under the impression that people didn't throw candy in parades any longer.  I haven't been to any in years and I guess I assumed we had become more civilized.  I was wrong.  My kids became Philistines when the candy started falling.  They'd race out a few feet to pick up the tiny gifts not caring if it was even candy they liked.  I didn't see them step on other kids in the process but it would not have surprised me at all. 

 By the time Santa arrived they had candy stuffed in all their pockets, in my pockets and still had their hands so full they had trouble waving at Mr. Claus. 

So the Christmas season is here and boy are the kids excited.  The tree is up, the tattle-tale elf arrived and my to-do list is eight pages long.  Bring on the sweets.