My weekend started a few hours early, and it still wasn’t long enough! I left work early on Friday to accompany my husband to a “parade” at the girls’ high school. I have to put it in quotes because it was just another example of how the kids have been painfully shortchanged by being forced to live in that dead-end town.
My husband found a spot under a large tree, since I have the amazing superpower of sunburning to a crisp within 10 minutes of sun exposure. We dropped the tailgate, got comfy, and then — just looked around, watched people around us, and got very quiet.
It’s hard to describe that town. I am from a small town, and it’s nothing like this one. This one is like stepping into a Twilight Zone of inbred genetic blunders. Their tiny minds cannot grasp anything more intellectual than cheap gossip, and they pride themselves on rampant ignorance. They celebrate their crudeness and worship the trashiest among themselves.
Every time I have to go there, I am left with sadness. The kids deserve so much better than this. I hate that they are expected to accept these buffoons as peers. I hate that basement-level standards are as high as the bar will ever be raised for them there. Whatever the kids achieve in life, it will be in spite of this upbringing, not because of it.
What passed as a parade in that town was nothing more than a few cars blasting crappy music, undecorated trailers hitched to trucks that passed as floats, and students who looked bored as hell, high, or both. Yeah, very festive.
I had fun because I was with my husband, and we laughed and joked around, waving at my stepdaughter as she went by. I am always happy to see my stepkids, but leaving that town is always a relief, like finally scraping off something nasty that I had accidentally stepped in.
I didn’t let it ruin our weekend, though. The first weekend of October means one thing (besides watching football): decorating for Halloween! I handle all the decorations inside the house, but I have learned to just turn my husband loose outside and let him do his thing in the yard. He enjoys it and gets so excited. He should be finishing up later today, and I will take some pictures.
Sweat & Sparkle 