Santa Parade

      There is something we New Englanders take for granted that folks don’t have down here. Today, the city of Kennesaw, Georgia held its annual Santa Parade. We saw in the lineup Girl Scout and Boy Scout troops, clubs, bands, cheerleading squads, and beauty queens. Churches and businesses also came out of the woodwork. The parade was quite long. The participants had a festive spirit, but something was missing and that something was snow.

       On our way returning to our car, we laid our eyes upon a fenced in area. It was a pen with hard-packed snow inside. Where they imported the snow from I don’t know, but that really isn’t the point. Kids were playing in it, making snowballs and throwing them at one another. They were having fun. They had the Christmas spirit.

        I’m not saying it never snows here in Kennesaw. After living here for three Christmases it had snowed more than I had expected. Snow is beautiful, the kids love it, but adults have to tend to the serious side of it. Down here, the city doesn’t have the luxury of snow plows. It has a modest sander or two and that’s about it. Kids don’t mind the major inconvenience. They simply don’t have school.

         I’ll have to say that I miss home, and the first fall of the clean white stuff can boost everyone’s Christmas spirit. But soon it gets dirty. It doesn’t take long to grow tired of snow blowing paths and shoveling the porch steps. I especially don’t miss sanding and salting the walkways only for them to be soon covered again by ice. Kids, though, they don’t think of that, and I can say there is nothing that lifts my spirits more than when they are happy.