Parade and Pullen

Wow, what a day! As a volunteer and boardmember with Mordecai Historic Park, I was offered the opportunity to march in today’s Raleigh Christmas Parade. This is the second year I was offered this opportunity but through a scheduling snafu Mordecai missed out on the parade. I had gotten the whole family excited about it then only to be disappointed. We were determined not to miss our parade chance this year and fortunately we were not disappointed.

We got to Mordecai around 8 AM, about 30 minutes before we were due to line up for the parade. Having gotten our costumes a week before, we were all decked out in 19th century clothes (though the timeframes varied considerably). We met the park staff and other volunteers who were participating and boarded the Raleigh Trolley for the parade.

We waited for about an hour at the corner of St. Mary’s and Hillsborough Street while the parade participants got organized. Soon we learned we would be one of the first participants to go in the parade, right after the tram driven by the Wake County Sheriff’s Office. Hallie and Travis carried the Mordecai Park banner while Kelly and I walked arm-in-arm behind them. Our other costumed participants marched and waved right behind us, with the trolley following along. Cheers went up when the trolley rang its bell and also when Travis tipped his top hat to the crowd!

We walked on a 1.4 mile route past 75,000 people lining Hillsborough and Fayetteville streets. It was a thrill to be out there waving to the crowd, and occasionally picking out familiar faces. The kids have marched in smaller parades before for Fourth of July events and seemed happy and comfortable playing the role.

I began to see how tiring it is to wave to people along a parade. My arm began to get weary and I was no longer making fluid motions. Then, before I knew it the parade was over. We had made it to the end and were on our way back to Mordecai House. Because we were in the front of the line we weren’t stuck waiting for the group ahead of us to finish up; there was no hurry-up-and-wait for us.

We parted with our fellow Mordecai supporters, stopped by Krispy Kreme to order celebratory doughnuts while in our costumes, and took a few family pics at home. We couldn’t stay long, though, as we were due for a cookout with Kelly’s employer, Leadership North Carolina.

We met up at the cookout held at the offices of Falcon Engineering and said hello to the Falcon employees that Kelly knew from her job. After dispatching with some tasty cheeseburgers, the kids played soccer while Kelly and I visited. Then I checked my watch with alarm as I realized we had N.C. State football traffic between us and my next gig: the grand reopening of Pullen Park. I quickly changed into the suit I brought and we hauled ass back towards downtown.

At least, that was the plan. I made a bad choice to turn onto the Beltline at US1 from I-40 as we ran into heavy traffic. I had figured I could make it to the Western Boulevard exit without getting stuck but that was not the case. We soon were crawling along with football fans as the clock steadily advanced to the 2 PM opening.

We had 10 minutes to spare when we finally broke free of the football traffic. It was then a race against (and sometimes around) the Pullen visitors everywhere who seemed to have stopped in the middle of the road to ask attendants how to enter the park. With mere minutes left, I wheeled around these folks and raced into the park, taking the last VIP parking spot before the ceremony began. Somehow I made it on stage just as the other speakers and guests were going up as well.

It was a special dedication for me, not just because of the special nature of Pullen Park, but because there was no pressure for us to get to the ribbon-cutting part. There were gobs of people already enjoying the park and we were not holding anyone up. I brought my two-page speech with me onstage and waited my turn to speak.

The Parks Director, Diane Sauer, threw a monkey wrench into plans when she skipped my turn to speak by mistake. We chuckled about it as David Shouse stepped up in my place. Only then, David also forgot me and introduced the next speaker. Finally, Diane invited me up to speak and I read my speech. We heard from the park director after that and then all stepped up to cut the ribbon.

For the second time, our kids were invited to help cut the ribbon by the mayor and boy, were they proud!

After the ceremony a man came up to me. I had mentioned in my speech all the great things that take place in the park, including wedding engagements. The guy shook my hand and thanked me for mentioning that. He told me he was one of those people who’d gotten engaged there. My head was spinning at that moment and I didn’t really appreciate it right then, but later I thought how cool it was that he had shared that with me, and how good it made me feel to know that my speech had meant something to him.

We stayed at Pullen long enough for the kids to get a little climbing in at the playground. Then it was back home for some much-needed downtime.

At 6, we attended Travis’s piano recital. He plated three pieces, including one he wrote himself. He did an awesome job as did his fellow musicians. We enjoyed refreshments and conversation afterward.

Now that’s one hell of a day, any way you cut it. It was crazy the amount of activities we crammed into it but we somehow pulled it off! I’m now ready for bed and will sleep as long as possible tomorrow. I anticipate doing a whole lot of nothing for the rest of the weekend!

(Oh, and my Wolfpack trounced visiting, seventh-ranked Clemson in football today, 37-13. Icing on the cake!)