The whole town was
preparing for the big Festival of States Parade to be held downtown on Central
Avenue. When the Festival of States Parade
celebration was over, there would be a community picnic and a dazzling display of
fireworks to help celebrate the Fourth of July. The Ladies Garden Club members, the AMVETS,
and several different civic organizations like the Rotary, Moose, and Elks
clubs would all take part in the parade and other festive activities. The big parade was the beginning of an all-day
event to celebrate Independence Day or the Fourth of July. Many of the local residents from each town
would march in the parade or ride on one of the many floats. Robert’s father, Mr. Strawn, marched every
year with the Knights of Columbus or the Shriners. Local beauty queens would be seen waving to
the crowd while riding on the floats. The
local newspaper would cover the event with a special edition devoted to the
parade. Although the parade was a
special event for most of the town’s people, it was the event that took place
before the parade started that all the kids in the neighborhood were waiting
for. It was called the scrambles! The scrambles consisted of people in buildings
throwing loose change out into the street for the kids to scramble after. Pennies, nickels, dimes, and quarters were
thrown by the handful from open windows onto the streets. Naturally, as the first coins struck the
pavement, the kids scrambled into the streets to get the money. If you were fast enough, you could get several
dollars by retrieving the loose change thrown from the windows and tops of
buildings. Of course, kids would fight
for the quarters, and some of the bigger kids would try to take the coins away
from the smaller ones. The crowds would
cheer for each kid as the scrambles began, and help cheer on the little ones to
scramble after the money. The older kids
soon learned from past experience that many of the coins thrown out the windows
were heated over a stove until they became very hot! They had learned that quarters especially
would burn the fingers when picked up, which made the crowd laugh when the kids
dropped the coins like a hot potato. If
you should be unlucky and pick up a hot coin, only to have someone step on your
hand, it would make a blister on your skin.
Every year the boys
from the tree Fort club would take part in the scrambles. Butch, Lester, Robert, Allan, and Ronald
always had a plan that they would put into action for the scrambles. They would all team up to help each other get
to the coins first. Football tactics
were used in the form of blocking, tackling, and running interference. This was serious business for the kids and a
chance to make more money than they otherwise could in a year’s time. Of course they would split the profits equally
among themselves. The money they made
would be spent on a bus ride to the movies, and on popcorn and candy. Favorites were licorice sticks, all-day
suckers, and bubblegum.
After the parade, the
next big event would be the local picnic. As usual, it would be at a local park for
softball games, horseshoe events, and various other activities. A long line of picnic tables would be set up
end-to-end. The tables would be filled
to capacity with all kinds of baked goods like cookies, cakes, and pies in one
section, and homegrown vegetables in another section. The remaining space would accommodate covered,
tasty dishes made by the local housewives – smoked turkey, ham, fried chicken,
potato salad, tossed salads, and all kinds of casserole. There was more food than any one person could
sample. The leftovers would be donated
to the local charities and churches. The
picnic would last until dark, and then the fireworks display would begin. The fireworks show would go on for an hour or
so depending on the weather.
That year, after the
preparations, parade, and picnic, the people in the town began to witness the
biggest fireworks show they had ever seen!
It was during the middle of the fireworks display that the strange
object was seen by some spectators.
“Look! Look! Did you see that?” yelled someone in the crowd. People were pointing their finger at the
strange looking object for other people to see.
The strange object could only be seen when the rockets from the
fireworks exploded in a dazzling blaze of color. The light from the exploding rockets was
reflecting off the strange object in the sky!
The object looked round in shape.
It looked like two pie pans stuck together, with the top pan upside
down. This gave the object a thin shape
in the middle as it moved in any direction.
Sometimes colorful lights blinked on and off to match the colors of the
fireworks. Time and again, the strange
object disappeared and then appeared in a different location. The boys from the tree Fort club were all
grouped together watching in amazement at this spectacular object. “Hey Lester, are you thinking what I’m
thinking?” said Butch. “Probably,” said
Lester. “It can only be connected with
the little old Lady.”
The next day the boys
decided to meet again at the tree Fort. “Let’s do some observation of the stars in the
Meadows,” said Lester, “where there are no street lights to hamper our view.” “Robert, don’t you have a telescope?” asked
Butch. “I got one for Christmas last
year, but I think it’s still in the box.” answered Robert. “Let’s set it up in the Meadows where it’s
real dark, and maybe we can see something in the sky.” said Butch. The rest of you guys, bring any pair of
binoculars you can find, in case we can’t get the telescope to work,” Butch
said as an afterthought. So that evening
before dark, the boys were back at the tree Fort with all their equipment. The plan was to set up the telescope in the
middle of the Meadows and take turns doing observation of the moon, planets,
and stars. The rest of the guys would be
lying on a blanket, scanning the stars with their binoculars to help out with the
observation by covering a wider view. If
anyone spotted anything, the telescope would be pointed in the direction of the
sighting. When everything was in place
the boys were delighted to observe a meteor shower. Lester was thumbing through his astronomy book,
looking at all the different constellations. “Did you guys know that the Milky Way got its
name because it looks like a bunch of spilt milk in the sky?” remarked Lester. Ronald thought to himself, “Professor Lester
sure is smart. He knows a little bit about everything!” All the boys focused their binoculars at the
Milky Way. “Wow!” said Allan. “There must be millions upon millions of
stars up there.” “The Milky Way is the
galaxy that we live in,” added Lester. “It’s
just one galaxy among millions of other galaxies throughout the universe,” Lester
continued. “Do you think there are other
people living up there?” asked Ronald.
Professor Lester continued with his lecture, “Based on the mathematical
probability of the number of stars, planets, and moons observed in the known
universe, there must be millions upon millions of planets similar to Earth in
our galaxy alone!” Robert thought to
himself, “I don’t believe that. I believe we’re the only people in the
universe. The Bible says that man is created in the image of God, and it
doesn’t say anything about other beings in the universe,” he rambled on in his
thoughts. Robert’s musing was
interrupted when Butch suddenly yelled out, “I think I see something!” It was Butch’s turn to look through the
telescope, and he was focusing the instrument more on the horizon than the rest
of the guys were. Butch pointed his
finger in the direction he was looking. All
of the binoculars were soon looking in the same direction. A tiny beam of light was moving across the
horizon. “It looks like it’s coming in
our direction!” said Butch with an excited voice. Everyone continued to track the movement of
the bright object. “It does seem to be
getting closer,” said Robert. “Yeah,” agreed
the rest of the group in unison. As the
strange object got larger, it appeared to be headed straight for the Meadows. The boys’ eyes all froze simultaneously on the
descending object. “It’s … it’s going to land!” said Butch in a trembling
voice. A beam of light like the beam of
a flashlight was seen shining from underneath the strange object, as though it
were searching for something on the ground. The strange craft just hovered there for a
moment, and then it settled without a sound less than 100 yards from where the
boys were. A series of lights began to
blink on and off in soft pastel colors as they seemed to chase each other
around the middle of the strange object! Underneath the strange object, a door opened
and several large creatures were released upon the ground. The strange object then rose up into the air
and disappeared into the night sky. “They
unloaded something!” said Butch. “I
could see them through the telescope!” he said over and over again. “What did they look like?” asked Lester. “They kind of look like hairy creatures,” he
replied. The boys gathered up all their
equipment and headed back towards the tree Fort. Once they were safely inside, Robert began to
wind the alarm clock that was always left running in the tree Fort. Sometimes the boys would set the alarm if they
wanted to get up early in the morning or late at night.
(Part One of the
novella by George F. Kohn, author of Holiday Favorites series available on
Amazon.com)
For the rest of the
story, order your copy of The Festival of States Parade, published
for Kindle e-readers and paperback. Amazon search: Holiday Favorites by
George F. Kohn.)
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