Join in the Celebration Now – Victoria, BC – [05/20/2019]

Bang the drums
Sound the horns
Join in the splendid show
We’re gonna march till someone says that it’s time to go

It’s been years since I went to the Victoria Day parade. There are a lot of reasons for that, at first related to memories and family, and then as time passed simply related to…time. Time just kept getting away from me. It does that too often, time.

When I realized that it was Victoria Day weekend, I made a call…Amras had never seen our parade. And in the craziness and occasional stress of planning the wedding (which is, after all, only two weeks away!) we were long overdue for something that was just the two of us.

So first thing in the morning I packed up a picnic lunch and we bussed into town to find a spot on the curb. There were not as many early arrivals as I remember when I was small, and we were able to find a spot fairly easily – though as it turned out we could have done better by going further up the route. Then we people watched for longer than I thought we would end up doing, huddled up under our large umbrella (which we managed to attach to a bike rack to form a very satisfying shelter from the inevitable Victoria Day rain.)

The lead off to the parade is always the Naden Band. Normally – though not this year – they play “Heart of Oak” as they march smartly over the hill and the crowds start to cheer. But even though the song was different this season, it was still the Naden Band, and there is something about the Naden Band that pulls at my heart in a way I can’t really explain, it’s tradition, and in a lot of ways I’m very big on tradition.

It’s hard to describe what I felt sitting there in the rain, clapping and waving and just…being happy. Being us. Sharing something that was such an important part of my family history. Of my city’s history.

There are many aspects of my life that Amras knows all about, some of them fairly dark, but he doesn’t know all of me, not yet. There’s time for that…lots of time.

But honestly I just love parades. I had forgotten just how much I love parades. Particularly this parade.

Even if it does always rain.