Upcoming Parade...

As E and I drove around town today, shopping thrift stores for Halloween costume stuff after she took the PSAT, we drove down Main Street in El Cajon, the suburb of San Diego where I grew up (and Nikki lived here, too, as a child).

El Cajon's Mother Goose Parade is second only to the Rose Parade west of the Mississippi. Obviously, preparations for the 61st Mother Goose parade, which takes place on the Sunday before Thanksgiving, are well under way. In addition to the annual fun of having my dad, a Toastmaster's member, as one of the twenty microphoned parade announcers along the route, my siblings and I twice appeared on floats sponsored by Der Wienerschnitzel -- lots of fun memories. But now the population of El Cajon has grown so much and therefore the parade route is soooo crowded that I've never taken the kids. We have our own little parade in PV which we vastly prefer, especially since I'm not willing to stake out a curb along the Mother Goose route at 7 AM (for a noon parade) on a Sunday morning....