Friday, September 28, 2007

HAPPY BIRTHDAY AMERICA, IOWA STYLE

I was back home for the Creston, Iowa 4th of July Gala/Festival/Parade of Lights Extravaganza, one of my favorite places to be in the world. I've been participating in the parade for most of my life. Several times as a horse rider, several times as a softball player, several times as baton twirler for Leslie Allard's dance studio.

This year's festival was its usual delight with tractor pulls and new evangelical choirs marching in the parade. The evangelical stuff is shocking to me...never knew Creston to be very religious. Pockets of zealots here and there, but this was s little frightening, like the Klan spreading northward.

The people on the front porch of the Elks Club were not impressed with the evangelicals, saying things like,"They're different all right." and "Why, that's not in good taste." I remain particularly fond of the choir's giant lilac flag that read "Jesus!" in green glitter. The man carrying the flag was likely a born again, as most of his tattoos seemed to identify things of a more nefarious nature: a naked chick humping a snake, an eagle crying blood and Calvin pissing. He was also smoking which made me wonder what the Lord thought of that. My guess is that the Lord was pretty impressed that he could march, smoke and proselytize all at the same time.




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