I live at the corner of Tremont and Devon Roads in Upper Arlington, Ohio. It may be an anomaly in these days of video games, iPods, and hundreds of cable channels, but Upper Arlington is pretty fanatical about the 4th of July.

How fanatical, you ask? Well, let's see...

• The city paints permanent red, white and blue stars on the street all the way down the route of the 4th of July parade



• People start putting their chairs out on the parade route a week before the actual event to reserve their spots



• On the morning of the 4th, at about 8AM, cars drive all through town with their horns honking and people yelling through bullhorns telling everybody to "get up!...it's time for the parade!"



• In the afternoon, all over town whole streets get blocked off so neighbors can have block parties

Stuff like that. But maybe most telling are the neighborhood floats. Neighborhoods like ours get together and build floats for the parade. Even though my address is Tremont Road, we are a part of the "Devon Road Neighborhood" which has very strict rules for membership. To be a member, you have to meet at least one of the following criteria:

• You live on Devon Road.



• You have lived on Devon Road



• You live near Devon Road



• You'd like to live on Devon Road



• You know somebody who lives on (or would like to live on) Devon Road



• You're not too particular about the people you associate with and like to have a good time

It helps if you know which end of a hammer is supposed to hit the nail, but that's not, strictly speaking, a requirement for entry.

Building a float, the way we do it, is a big enough endeavor that we only do it every other year. On the off years we go to the parade and say to ourselves, "Man, that thing really needed us!," and start planning for the next year.

You see, the Devon Road entry is not just a float, it's a show...

We have a tried and true formula for making an impact at the parade. Above all else, the goal is to get as many kids involved as possible. Not to ignore all the great fun we have as adults, what this is really about is building memories for our kids. As such, they're involved almost all the way along. Kids of all ages help us paint and pomp (putting that stupid paper in the chicken wire) and, most importantly, participating in the parade.

It's a full-week event. Beginning last Monday, a week before the parade, we started building the floats.

For whatever reason, my house has a back driveway we don't use so our house has become Parade Central. Over the course of the week, every night more and more people (and kids, and dogs, and what have you), show up at our house ready to be a part of it in some way. Some bring food, some bring wine or beer or soft drinks, some bring tools. Some just bring a good attitude.

For most of the week, the kids play. They use the playhouse and the trampoline and the yard. Most of the parents socialize when they're not working on the float or on their dance routines (more about which in a moment) or on signage. Later in the week, when the core construction is done, more people get more involved in the actual building and decorating of the floats.

By the weekend, the last two days before the 4th, we had close to 80 people hanging around at any given time. Making or renewing acquaintances, helping on the floats, or just being there. Everyone's welcome. But everybody's also getting ready, in whatever manner, for the parade.

So, you're thinking, so, what's to get ready for? They ride on the float, right? Well, not exactly. That's a different neighborhood you're thinking of. Let me tell you about this year's "float" on Devon Road.

Our theme was centered around the Blues Brothers and our main song Ray Charles' Shake A Tail Feather from, if you know the movie, the scene in Ray's House of Music. If you have the movie, you might want to review the dance routine going on there because that's what we had about 50 people doing on Northwest Boulevard yesterday.

For those not familiar with the song, it's a typically cooking Ray Charles tune where he's talking about dancing and keeps naming off different dances...

Do the twist...

Do the fly...

Do the swim...

And, do the bird.

Do the duck...

Do the monkey...

Watoosie!

Do the mashed potato...

What about the boogaloo?

The boney maroney...

Come on, let's do the twist!

Every time, as Ray is calling off the songs, everybody's going from one dance step to the next, dancing down the street. That's right, not riding on the float. Oh, PLEASE. We're dancing. In the street.

Everybody, from grandparents to babies, are wearing black fedoras and sunglasses along with our Red, White and Blues Brothers T-shirts. Everyone not on the float is also carrying an inflatable saxophone (in pink, orange or purple). At the head of the group, which stretches the better part of 100 yards, are the banner carriers. Next, the middle-aged kids, those in the 10- to 17-or-so-year-old range.

Next is the bus, made from a farm cart. We always have two floats, one of which is used to hold the youngest children. This year the kids' cart was made to look like a tour bus. Along the side it said "Mount Rushmore Tour Lines" but the Rushmore was crossed out and "BLUESMORE" was scrawled in below it, graffiti style.

Behind the bus were the women, in black tank tops and light shorts, the requisite hats, sunglasses, and saxophones. They had full dance routines for the entire parade. Then came the mountain.

We recreated Mount Rushmore (14 feet tall) and put sunglasses on George, Tom, Ted and Abe. Below them, on a three-tiered stage, was the main event, the Blues Brothers. Six of the neighborhood men dressed in fedoras, sunglasses, short-sleeved white shirts, narrow black ties, black pants, white socks, and black shoes--standard Blues Brothers attire--led the dance routine.

Finally, there were the cops; the rest of the men of the group with oversized Police hats, batons, huge silver stars, and black circles meant to be steering wheels, the cops probably had the most fun of anybody. They had entire synchronized routines going on, throwing the steering wheels back and forth, running in patterns like the Shriners in their little cars, doing circles around both the main float AND every cop standing along the parade route, they were like the Keystone Cops.

All of this, of course, driven by a great sound track and a serious sound system. Not the typical, hey, let's use my stereo on the float arrangement, oh no, we rent professional gear.

The whole thing is an absolute hoot and the crowd reaction is, well, amazing. All the way down the 3-mile route people were clapping and dancing and, most of all, smiling and laughing along with us.

As always, it was a hugely fun week of hard work, but the reaction of the crowd as we dragged our little parade-within-a-parade down the street was worth every hammered thumb and chicken-wire-scratched forearm.

Usually we don't enter the judging. We just do it for fun even though we're very often the most entertaining group in the parade. As a change of pace, we actually entered the competition this year and came way with Best in Parade, the top honor.

One of the guys on the judging committee, after the awards were given out, said to me, "You know, this means you guys can't skip every other year like you usually do...the winner this year leads the parade next year."

I just smiled and said, "Thanks, but we're still going to skip next year. Besides, we'd rather go last than first, anyway."

We'll be back in two years. Watch out Guilford Road.

For more photos, go here.

1. Erin Morgan07/06/2005 04:29:21 PM

Scott,
What a great tribute this photo album is to a bunch of amazing people- (Hurray to the Good's) The Morgan family thought this past week was one of the best times we have ever had! We feel very lucky to have landed in THE FANTASTIC DEVON ROAD COMMUNITY! Cheers to the future, with great friendships! Devon Road rocks!