Summertime on Main Street

Oh hey, Jamie McLean!  I'm borrowing your song title.  It's really your own fault:  I've had Summertime on Main Street in my head all week ....

Just about the 4th of July
Trying to beat the heat of the summertime
Ain’t got summer school
Sit beneath the shade of a tree
Trying to keep cool

Waiting on the ice cream man
Working on my summer tan
Going for a bicycle ride
Crusing into town
Ain’t got nothing but time 

I live 45 minutes west of New York City in a smallish town.  Close enough to be in "The City" for theater, music, art, food and adventures of all sorts whenever I like (or can afford) but far enough away that my 7-minute commute to work has me passing a field of sheep, another with Black Angus steer and donkeys, three coffee shops and my my beloved river.  We have a small-town mindset here.  Everyone knows everyone.  Everyone helps everyone.  There is a huge spirit of volunteerism and community here.  We're not in the sticks by any means (witness Starbucks, more sushi per capita than most places, a couple of celebrity residents, great restaurants, shopping, wonderful schools, etc.)  We've been here for 100 years.  This year.  Our anniversary.

And it’s summertime on Main Street 

We got sweet tea and lemonade 

And it’s summertime on Main Street 

We got flags and big parades 

Today's parade to celebrate the first 100 years of Denville's history was the largest this town has ever seen.  We have two parades a year here.  One for Memorial Day (on Memorial Day I might add) and one the Sunday of Thanksgiving Weekend, our small-town version of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.  Today there were multiple bands, lots of home-grown floats, every civic organization represented, every faith community, sports teams, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts, our elected officials, dance schools, veterans, Miss Denville and firefighters.  It stepped off around 2 PM and I didn't get home until after 5:00.

Girl Scouts take part in all parades in this town.  It's taken for granted that we'll be there in uniform on Memorial Day and in cute costumes representing whatever the theme the Chamber of Commerce choose for that year in the Holiday Parade.  We look forward to these events and our chance to participate in the life of our town as well as show our community spirit.  Today we were in uniform once again, carrying a rainbow of signs that indicated the various types of community service the girls have performed over the years.  Girl Scouts celebrated its 100th anniversary last year; we are one year older than our town.

It was a beautiful day for a parade.  Kind of hot but not really humid, bright blue sky.  Really pretty perfect.  I walked the mile and a half to the start of the parade to meet my troop and the rest of the Girl Scout community.  Lining up participants in a parade this large is a logistical feat; they had everyone arrive early and checked and double-checked lists and line-up orders.  We were packed in down a sidestreet for nearly 2 hours before it was our section's turn to go.  We were behind the Denville String Band (local mummers--so much fun), the Sunshine Rotary Club's huge float, the Denville Monopoly Game crew (don't ask; long story) and immediately behind us was a fife and drum group.  While we waited we could see old cars, the town crier (yes, we have a town crier) and the Shriners and their tiny cars.  One of the car groups included a hearse from the '50's that was rigged with a jukebox that played oldies.  Small town.

We walked from one side of town to the other, down Main Street, passing through downtown where the crowds on the sides of the road were the heaviest.  The reviewing stand held the mayor and town council and an announcer who spoke about each group as they passed by.  Two ladder trucks from the fire department were on each side of the road with ladders raised, forming an arch from which an American flag was flying.  We all passed under it and I have to say, I was pretty emotional there.  Eventually we wound up at the ball fields and the girls were met by their parents.  We were in group two out of six parade sections in total so I walked back toward town to watch the rest of our home grown, small-town parade.

The folks from Rock Ridge Lake had built a float on a flat bed truck that included a little girl in a kiddy pool, splashing around under a bunch of trees with a cool band playing.  Behind them marched more Rock Ridge members carrying lawn chairs and doing a well-choreographed drill.  Pretty cool.  Pipe bands, Irish step dancers (they looked hot--sweaty hot--in their wigs and woolen dresses), a small drum corps.  There was a shepherd--no kidding--a shepherd--with border collies herding sheep down the street.  Small town.

Christian Drama Club passed by (always carrying a huge cross; sometimes I wish they could demonstrate some other parts of the story like teaching and healing).  The Camero club was there with shiny cameros, old and new.  The Wells Fargo Bank had a stagecoach with not-quite-Clydesdales.  The Red Cross Emergency Assistance vehicle was there.  I felt the tears come again at that moment as I remembered them driving through our neighborhood every day for weeks after Hurricane Irene, handing out free meals for residents and the people who were laboring to help us clean and rehabilitate our homes.  Small town.

Today was a beautiful celebration of everything we love about living here.  We are blessed with a gorgeous place in which to live, neighbors who have each other's backs in bad times and will celebrate the night away with you in good times, old folks with a lifetime of stories to tell and young people who give us a glimpse of a bright future here.

 I can see the water from here
Gonna dive right in gonna disappear
They could send a cavalry
Ain’t no way in the world they gonna find me

Gonna grab my fishing pole
Goin to my fishing hole
Catch one 3 feet wide
Skin it back, fry it up, cook it for suppertime 

People do fish here every day.  There's always more than one guy catching his dinner in the rivers, ponds and lakes I walk by.  The next night those same folks might be out for dinner at Thatcher McGee's or the Heritage Grill.  Small town options.  Small town blessings.  We are so very rich here.

And it’s summertime on Main Street
We got sweet tea and lemonade
And it’s summertime on Main Street
We got flags and big parades

PS  Thank you Jamie McLean Band.  You know my life has a pretty great soundtrack these days and you're a frequent performer in it.

Jamie McLean Band:  Summertime on Main Street  Listen to it; if you live in a small town, you'll love it.  If you don't live in a small town, you'll wish you did.