After watching and enjoying the Breckenridge Fourth of July parade for the past 17 years, this year will likely be our last. We decided to set up our chairs at Main Street Station, and there was an older gentleman, his sons, their friends and a 3-year-old granddaughter. Beside them were four 40-gallon totes.
The entertainment soon began. The Summit County Democrats parade by with their signs. About five minutes later, the Summit County Republicans parade by with their signs.
We soon found out what was in the totes: water balloons and water to fill up their water cannons to shoot at the Republican contingency. Their great achievement was getting the water balloons in the driver’s window of the pickup.
Then comes the Ember Restaurant float. For some reason, they thought it would be appropriate to throw water balloons and shoot their water cannons at the crowd. I’d like to ask how this spectacle celebrated our nation’s Independence Day, but it is our assumption that someone either has no respect for our great nation or they have no respect for the majority of the parade watchers.
Our neighbors were prepared for this battle, so at 10:25 a.m., when it was about 60 degrees, most of us were soaked. Call us old (late 50s) and party-poopers, but we took our chairs and left.
My husband and I are so thankful to be living in the greatest country on earth and attend this little parade to proudly stand with our hands over our hearts when the flags go by, and a tear in our eyes when the bus comes by playing “God Bless the USA,” but those are moments we missed this year because a few people have decided that a Fourth of July parade doesn’t mean the same thing to them.