For an hour and 20 minutes, the veterans paraded up Fourth Street, hundreds of them, if not thousands, in a patriotic array of marching, wheelchairs, cars (foreign and domestic), trucks, trikes, motorcycles, tanks, Jeeps, hummers and one horse that seemed ready to buck out of control with each meep! of a military horn. Veterans of every variety represented. There were Scottish-American veterans in kilts. Jewish veterans in a convertible. Women veterans, formerly underaged soldiers, Harley-riding veterans, veterans from both World Wars. You name a veteran, and he or she was no doubt present. There goes the mayor on a fire truck! There's Shelley Berkeley—wearing Keds painted like American flags—on the back of a Harley!
Thousands gathered to watch Tuesday morning, waving flags. There were big people with little dogs, little people with big dogs, dogs wearing American flag clothing, and a sea of red, white and blue. One enthusiastic family all showed up wearing T-shirts printed with enormous "W"s and the face of the president. A local baseball team chanted "USA! USA!" when they felt inspired by a passing truck, like the fire truck loaded with helium balloons and the procession of wheelchairing veterans who'd earned their Purple Hearts. Their silence spoke volumes when a veteran softball team passed.
Candy was conservatively thrown from camouflaged helmets to the hands of hungry children, and Boy Scouts distributed flags. While the tanks rolled and children marched with guns, the sun beat down on what seemed like a perfect autumn Veterans Day. Perfect except, perhaps, for the black man handcuffed next to a police car, surrounded by five cops. They yanked his arms, one cop holding the barefoot man close to him and then running, barefoot man in tow, across the street to a waiting cop car. His offense? He was taking stuff, the cops said, like flags.
Hey, it's Veterans Day—the flags are free! His pockets were likely stuffed with free red, white and blue candy, too.