July Fourth Parade
 

The Bristol Fourth of July Parade was inaugurated in 1785. As you might imagine, this small town is mighty proud of this. The parade is always fun with marching bands from as far away as Minnesota and Texas. I also enjoy the growups playing dressup in period costumes of three cornered hats and firing muskets, ladies fife and drum corp. The militia units, there are usually several, also go back to the revolutionary war such as the Kentish Rifles or the Bristol 'train of Artillery. This year it was all cancelled.

My brother-in-law, who I've known since we were 6 y.o., hosts a big neighborhood party on his farm next to a spring fed pond that fills up with kids. I never took a count but there are over 120 people there. There is a grill for the meat, a DJ for dancing and BYOB. I get back to my home town maybe once a year so I enjoy these gatherings because there are always people there I've known just as long. This year nothing. We know next year will be different and with luck and some effort, different for the better.

We got canceled too. Willimantic Boom Box Parade....a fixture and great event here in the Willimantic, CT area. And, a local party after, known as 4th of July at the Webster's, was also canceled. Total bummer.

https://www.nbcconnecticut.com/news/...antic/2009775/

I was out riding last night and people were shooting fireworks from there houses and ranches so I got somewhat of a fireworks show. Better than nothing under the current circumstances. You know one group tries to out do the other so then you have a war zone of fireworks :lol:

Mini-Parade!
 

Yes, our Memorial Day and Independence Day parades around here have been canceled. However, we just ride our "float" through town, the same as when we ride it in the regular parade. There's a blue tooth speaker on the back which plays patriotic music from my iPhone. Here's a photo of Candace and me on Memorial Day. Same set up on Independence Day, but no one took a photo.


https://cimg1.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...c649baee1.jpeg

People smile and wave back!

I have 2 immediate family members who are hospital ICU RN's, and 2 other family who are first responders.

Thank You for being glad these events were cancelled in the name of responsible public health.

Please thank them for their service.

One of my son's neighbors organizes a neighborhood Independence Day parade, but they wisely canceled this year. (The organizer's wife has MS, so that probably makes her especially vulnerable to COVID.)

Here is a photo from last year's event, featuring my grandsons, then age 2 and 4, with the proverbial (and literal) girl next door. Her grandpa, who teaches by remote at the Naval Postgraduate School, coincidentally was my boss at UCSD Extension for a few years.
https://cimg9.ibsrv.net/gimg/bikefor...744aa460a6.jpg

They damn well better smile and wave back. :) That is one cool-looking recumbent tandem trike; it appears to be very well engineered.

John - It's a 2005 Greenspeed (Australian). Here's a link describing it's purchase, assembly, and some mods. - Ed

The link doesn't work, but I found your homepage at Princeton. You are the latest of several physics PhDs I have met through bicycling (either virtually or on the road). I was a (solid state) physics major myself (BS and MS at UCLA) before I switched to data science, VLSI architecture, and digital signal processing.

My elder son, David, did his postdoc in plasma physics at Princeton, while based here in San Diego at the General Atomics D3D Tokamak.