Have you marched in a parade?

There was Brownies. And Summer band where I couldn’t do the drum rolls so I played cymbals. Army ROTC, and of course real Army parades/ceremonies. I still don’t like being looked at and on display but I can tolerate it. None of them were any fun but I put myself out there because I was supposed to. Good character building, I guess.

I was in a color guard from the age of 9 to 17. There were some parades I hated and some that where great fun. The ones I hated were the rainy ones, I carried the V.F.W. flag. It was weighted with sand so every time it rained it was really hard to lift it back up when we passed the review stand.

While I was in Americorps, we participated in a couple parades back in my do-gooder days. We also got to ride in a Halloween float and throw candy to kids. Fun!

In college (and god, this must be 8 years ago now) my then-roommate was having a meltdown over the campus Christmas parade. The person who was supposed to help her decorate the float disappeared along with some of the decoration budget. She had a tree and not much else. Me and a couple friends piled white blankets on the float to be the “snow”, hung candy canes on the tree, and joined her in the parade as ‘Santa’s helpers’. She was in tears thanking us afterward.

This.

I marched in the LGBT Pride parade back in the 90s, and it was okay. I was glad to be there to support my friends, but seeing the stone-faced bigot protestors with the “god hates you” nonsense was a bit of a downer.

Plus I’d camped it up a bit for the parade & and was wearing short PVC skirt, big boots, leather bodice top, and the march ended in a bad bit of town, so yes, some sleazy perv approached me afterwards to ask if I was “working”. :frowning:

More like: Yes, and could take it or leave it.

I marched with M.A.D.D. in the Illinois State Fair parade through Springfield in ~1990.

Oh, I loved the rainy parades, as that meant we got to ride in a float. It had a top, but was open on the sides, so we still got to play. (Color guard would just play instruments. You couldn’t be in color guard if you didn’t play an instrument.)

In marching band, all through high school.
Then as chaperone/photographer for my kids marching bands, all through high school.

I once had a large scooter store here in Atlanta. Probably 60% of my clientele were gay or lesbian. It’s Atlanta, ya know. And as such, there’s a large Pride parade here every year. Since all of my customers are like one big family, several of them came to me one year wanting me to sponsor their group in the parade. I loaned them several scooters to fill out their group, and then they wanted me to come with them as well. Eventually I caved, they gave me a shirt that read “Straight But Not Narrow”, and I rode in the Atlanta Pride parade. At one point we were sitting still, and a young woman came from the crowd towards me in the street. She was one of my lesbian scooter customers whom I had invited to ride, but was unable for whatever reason. With tears in her eyes, she hugged me, and thanked me for doing this. Clearly recognition and acceptance was important to her and her friends, and made me feel good about participating.

Sea Scouts, Saint George’s Day parade every year for probably four years. I enjoyed being a part of it.

That is truely awsome!

Yes, lots military ones such as Edinburgh Tattoo, Berlin Oktoberfest, couple of funerals, couple of Cenotaph ones along with ‘Freedom of Cities’ due to the ships being the adopted warships of those towns.

Plenty of ordinary parade ground type things for visiting dignitaries, one for taking a bugler over to Belgium for Nov 11 last post - Antwerp.

Since that time, done a few industrial protest marches.

Can’t really say I wanted to do any of them, the militry ones were all on duty which means lots of rehearsal, standing around being cold and still and bulling up the uniform - a lot of years ago I might say. As for the industrial dispute ones, well, who the heck really wants to be put into such circumstances that one feels the only way to protect ones work is to go out and shout about it? These protests are never really fun, more about desperation and anger.

The best way to see Savannah is from the St. Patrick’s Day parade. That’s all I’m saying.

West Indian and Columbus Day, though I am neither West Indian nor Italian. I was a volunteer with the Cuomo campaign, though Andrew Cuomo isn’t West Indian either.

My first parade was on a church float before I started school. I marched in several parades as a Girl Scout and then again as a Scout leader. I was in the marching band in high school, so at least twice a month during the summer, we donned uniforms and marched. I marched with PFLAG in a couple of Pride parades in the late eighties. In this century, I was in one Christmas parade as Mrs. Claus (fun, but see flatlined’s notes about drinks and bathroom usage and apply it to cold weather).

Although I had fun in most of these, I really prefer being a spectator.

In a Christmas parade with my Dad when he was Ronald McDonald.

Always wondered about those bands in the Macy’s Day Thanksgiving Parade; it seems like a lot of work (raising money for the trip and practice the songs and marching) and time (schlepping there on a bus) and effort (being there at the crack of dawn from some crappy nearby motel in Jersey) for a grand total of 1 minute airtime - away from your family and food that day.

Just wondered if you thought the whole experience was worth it?

Ten years’ worth of parades for marching band, going from 7th grade up through my undergraduate studies. I didn’t mind parades for St. Patrick’s Day or Columbus Day. I hated the winter parades (Winter Festival, Santa Parade) and the Memorial Day parades (two towns in one day) due to the extreme weather conditions. Either I was freezing and had no way of keeping warm, or overheating and baking in the sun.

I was the first guy in a Veteran’s Day parade back in the mid 70s. I carried the Stars and Stripes followed by two others carrying a sign that said something about the Optimist Club being a friend of youth. This was in an industrial Midwest city with a population of about 80,000 at that time.

I’ve marched in several parades over the years - as a schoolkid, much later as a Civil War reenactor, and more recently as a Boy Scout leader. Now and then, it’s fun.

We have a treasured family photo (well, treasured for everyone else) from the 1970’s of me as a young tyke, sitting on my Big Wheel with a straw sombrero, red faced and bawling my eyes out. Apparently it was from some village parade I was being forced to take part in and it was extremely hot and I was miserable and wanted nothing less than to be there. I don’t remember the event itself, just the photographic evidence of it.

You aren’t assuming that they just go there, do the parade, and come back, are you? My band may have never done Macy’s, but we have done performances that are long distances away from home. It becomes more like a vacation, with the performance being the only part that was work.