How To Enjoy A Parade Without Even Trying

Some of you may know that I love the show "The Office". In honor of my favorite comedy on tv and the fact that Scranton Pennsylvania is the home of the nation's fifth-largest St. Patrick's Day parade my friends and I headed up for a little adventure.



Scranton is about four hours from DC and we made a couple of stops on the way. Somewhere in Pennsylvania, I decided that I needed a drink. We stopped at a truck and admired all the random stuff they had. On the back wall, I noticed that they had a variety of college sweatshirts for sale. You can imagine my surprise as I went through the sweatshirts and found a BYU hoodie. I was like "No Way!" I have a policy that if I ever find BYU regalia in a Pennsylvanian truck stop I buy it. I mean really, what are the chances?

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The Electric City welcomed us with open arms. This sign from the Office is in the food court of the Steam Town Mall.

I had never been to Scranton before but Kat had so she was our guide. I really had no idea what to expect. As we drove into the city we saw that people took this parade very seriously. An hour before the parade people were all ready lined up.

After a delicious breakfast at Mother's Table, we went to the parade route. This was a pretty varied parade with a lot of different things. Dan and I found particular joy in cheering for the things and people that no one else was cheering for.

One of my favorite moments was when we were watching the parade there was a guy who wanted to get past me. He was wearing a San Francisco Giants hat so I said to him "whatever you want Barry Bonds" he turned around and looked at me with a look that said, "Did that guy just call me Barry Bonds?" The answer...yes.

Kat, Carolyn, Amber, and Dan all dressed festively for the Parade.

As we were sitting down for breakfast I consulted the trusty blackberry to determine the population of Scranton. According to Wikipedia, it was something like 78,000 roughly the same size as Whittier. There was a lot of what I like to call local talent. People of all sorts out enjoying the parade. It wasn't a blizzard but it was not very warm either. I had to buy an extra green shirt because it was so cold. Despite this fact, there were tons of girls wearing very little clothing and I thought to myself, "Cute or not... that just isn't practical."
You know those old-timey bicycles? The ones where there is a really big front wheel? A couple of those guys were flying around the parade and the crowd was really enjoying it. Well, most of the crowd was enjoying them. One man who didn't seem to be was the Dog Man.

The Dog Man...simply awesome.

Now I am quite proud of my shirt that has wolves on it (Haydan helped me pick it out) even though pretty much everyone else hates it. The Dog Man also had a wolf shirt, but not only that he had two dogs on leashes and fingerless gloves. This was local talent at its best.

So the old-timey bicyclists are driving around and the bulldog decides he's had enough and takes a run at the bicycle. The guy riding the bike didn't see it but he was so close to getting knocked off. I can not even describe how funny this was. Dog Man was having all sorts of trouble keeping the dogs under control.

Scranton has totally embraced The Office. I checked, there is no Chili's. 

The best thing about parades is interacting with them. I'm pretty sure the people enjoy it, I know I do. Local candidates would walk by and we would make sure to make them feel welcome. There was some guy by the name of Tom Ryan who was running for something. Dan and I wanted to make sure he knew just how excited we were. I screamed full bore "TOM!" and then pointed and said "YOU!" He loved it, he pointed back and he may have even favored us with a fist pump. I can just imagine after the parade good old Tom Ryan is thinking. Wow! I'm really popular in Scranton. Did you hear the reaction I got? Sorry Tom, just Dan and I messing with you.

Andy Buckley aka David Wallace (Michael Scott's Boss)

During the parade, there are those moments when the crowd is a little quiet. I took it upon myself to end those awkward silences. Andy Buckley who plays the character David Wallace on the Office was in the parade. As he drove by in his limo I pointed at him and yelled "PLAYER!" He looked directly at me and pointed back. It was sweet. The people around me were eating it up. They were laughing at all the chicanery that I was up to.
I mean what it really comes down to is that you are basically just watching people walk by and that gets boring if you don't react to them.

I mean you knew at some point that I was going to join the parade. I thought I support the troops so this is something I can get behind.

Pennsylvania is the next big state up for grabs in the presidential primaries so we were barraged by people with their Hillary and Obama signs and T-Shirts. Unfortunately, we had no McCain signs to hold up. Hillary was actually in the parade and the crowds were quite large and excited to see her (that's what she said). There were tons of Unions represented in the parade, so I imagine that Scranton is the heart of Union country.

I have no idea who this guy is but he was the high light of the parade.

I know smug. This guy was so pleased with himself it was incredible. I have no idea what organization he represented or why he was so enamored with the dragon he was holding but he took arrogance to a whole new level. He just walked around wearing a top hat arms extended holding that darn dragon. I am hoping that Dan, Amber, Kat and Carloyn will all share their feelings about this guy.

Dan and I demanded that this guy tip his hat. We yelled, we cajoled, we tried everything. No dice. Not to be dissuaded we ran to the end of the parade route, yelled some more and got the tip of the cap. We fist pumped and high fived.

We had a great time in Scranton and thoroughly enjoyed our time at the parade.