Park Parade

This is one of the ways we seniors amuse ourselves here in our Florida park. Every year we have a park parade with a theme...I can't quite figure out what the theme was for this year but I do know that the parade has shrunk to a shadow of what it used to be.

Picture #1 shows one of my good buddies, Jo, and her husband, Frank.

Picture #2 is our King and Queen of the Turds, Dick and Molly (serious competition for this title is held in March).

Picture #3 shows Mitch and Kathleen. We thought Kathleen was a hooker but she's supposed to be Mae West.

Picture #4 is Ron who is the park clown whether he's dressed as such or not. He's easily one of the nicest people in the world.

Picture #5 is of Jan who makes the best jam you ever tasted.

After the parade they held a little luncheon in the clubhouse but they served hot dogs which I don't like so Barb and I went to Wendy's.

I think the parade was so small this year because our new park owners very foolishly interfered with the activities committee we had in place by disbanding it and hiring their own people. Those people were not liked for very good reason and have since been fired. We were right!! The problem is that, once you change the dynamics that were working well, it's not easy to put it back on track. The residents here are still bitter about having the new couple foisted on us and most of us aren't volunteering like we did before. I don't think it will get back to the way it was before but maybe, in time, we can recoup some of the park spirit we had.

In any case, we've managed to circumvent some of the new owner's dumb ideas and we're getting along well on our own so far. If they hire someone else as an activity director we will judge them on their own merit. The last couple got our backs up by completely discounting and discarding what we'd already set up for ourselves. This is not a good way to endear yourself.

Kathleen organized today's parade, bless her little heart, even though there wasn't much enthusiasm for it. She did her best with what she had to work with and she did a good job.