Hill Country Living
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Hill Country Living
By Coulter Fussell
Despite effectively being wiped off the decorative map by big box stores, the years’ very best annual holiday is only days away! Thanksgiving is coming whether Home Depot’s seasonal décor section likes it or not. Skipping Thanksgiving, the only day we get to eat cornbread dressing in the spirit of giving as opposed to the general everyday spirit of gluttony, is a sin unto itself. Forget the War on Christmas. What we truly have is a cooperate War on Thanksgiving.
I understand that selling orange and brown construction paper to make hand turkeys is probably not as profitable as selling life-sized bloodied skeletons in October or tiny plastic-headed elves that move throughout your house each night to keep your kids under control for the duration of December via the threat of enchanted surveillance. That fact could be interpreted as extremely worrisome but I do have hope that Thanksgiving will rise again. I think it’s mainly a marketing thing having to do with the turkey. It needs to be magic or make dreams come true or something.
Despite feeling that Cornbread Dressing Day has been severely slighted this year, I’m still looking forward to Christmas. And that’s almost all in part to the Christmas parade being at night this year! I love a parade and come from a hometown that loves parades. A butterfly can flap its wing in the next county and my hometown will throw a full on, marching band laden parade for it. So, I’ve been hard up for parades in these parts for years. Moving the Water Valley Christmas parade back to nighttime will double, possibly triple, the dose of parade fun. That was good idea!
In terms of the Christmas parade, I always have a hard time deciding if I like the antique car section or the four-wheeler section better. I guess I don’t have to choose as they both have their special attributes. For instance, the Antique Cars Section has not only very cool antique cars, but an heir of aristocracy on the part of the drivers. In attitude and demeanor, they are very aware that their participating in the parade is your pleasure. It also travels along at a very calm and Zen-like pace. Very meditative. A time to contemplate classic design, history and coolness.
The Four-Wheeler Section is also cool but with a slightly more frantic and frightening sensibility about it, what with the insane wheelies in tight spaces and all. And despite feeling that at any second a severe injury in front of children or involving children is in the cards, it still exudes a real family atmosphere.
Every year I threaten to take a pick-up truck, fill it with friends and be in the parade. But then once you’re in the parade you can’t watch the parade. It’s a real conundrum. Not to mention that as a participant, there’s the factor of audience enjoyment one must consider. Like, who would want to see me randomly ride by in a pick truck for no reason in the middle of an otherwise lovely Christmas parade? I’ll probably just stand on the sidelines and watch again this year, I guess. Call it a Thanksgiving turkey complex.
