Patterson Reunion Monday
July 4
Went to the “World’s Shortest Parade” in Aptos for the first time. We
came, we saw, we conquered.
Grand Linda’s original vision and costume’s were expanded to include
John and Julie as a period couple, and so 11 Pattersons were in the
parade. Zackary was the Charlie Chaplin convict, Laura was the Beauty,
David was the sergeant, and the rest of the Keystone Kops were Grand
Linda, Alissa, Brian, Melissa, Paul, and Grand Dave as the Driver. Four
of them stood on the running board and held on outside the Woody,
making it look like a Paddy Wagon. (Great Dave and Don missed the fun
while playing their usual 18 holes of golf, but they pledged to see it
next year.)
This time we purposely put ourselves at the end of the parade, so that
we could do many skits along the route and not hold up the parade.
Although each of the perhaps dozen skits was different, the basic theme
was for the Convict to kick the Sergeant, and then run away. The
Sergeant then called for help, and the Kops tried to catch the convict.
Sometimes the Convict would hide in the crowd, other times on the wheel
well, and once the convict headed to the local bar.
If surrounded by the Kops, then Convict would sneak between the legs of
the Sergeant and then the Kops would hit the Sergeant with their
nightsticks.
When the Convict escaped, he would take a flower off the front of the
Paddy Wagon and give it to the Beauty, and then walk away together.
Another Convict trick was to swap hats with the man of the couple, and
walk away his girlfriend, while the Kops would hit the man because he
was wearing the convict hat. The crowd laughed and applauded at nearly
every spot.
They gave the full show in front Judges, and we won 1st place in the
Adult Group category. Yeah!
That evening the Idahodians put on an amazing fireworks display at a
local beach. They used cannon fuse to synchronize the firing, and it
was wonderful. We had a crowd of perhaps 50 people watching the show
and they applauded when it was done and the neighbors later
congratulated the Idahodians. As David said, if there was an award for
the best illegal fireworks display, they surely would have won.
