The final post in the parade series. I hope you all have been enjoying this week, because I have.

This is cow guy. He is in every parade. The cow always looks the same, but I think it is in fact different. Last year he had a duck, too, and it was really cute.

Well turned-out horses are a must, and this gang was very cool and collected.

This unicyclist impressed me. Unicycling is hard. Unicycling uphill is harder. Unicycling uphill in a parade that stops and starts constantly…is really, really hard.

Some Old Broads for Peace, a much smaller contingent than usual. Technically hippies, but, you know.

More hippies in the march, who again could have been posted on Tuesday, but I had to save a few for today, you know?

This horse was beautiful, with the most amazing, fluid gaits. Unfortunately, it looked a little distressed. But oh, so pretty.

I know that this is the post you have all been waiting for, secretly. I thought about making you wait until Thursday, but I decided that would be mean. So, here are your hippies.

This was actually the float for a local nursery, but I think they belong in the hippie group. The floral decorations here were simply incredible.

A bellydancer shakes her groove thang for, uh, peace.

A very large and elaborate and very cool anti-war entry.

Another nursery, incidentally.

A colour guard of a different, uh, colour.

The world is in our hands. Or something.

I was going to post some pictures of the Obama floats, including the giant cardboard Obama cut-out, but I am kind of pissed at how rude his supporters were, and I grumpy with him, so no Obama. Hardcore Obamaites should really learn to play nicely with others.

I don’t know what Cottontail Acres is, but I was really confused by the bunny and the crabs.

An art gallery. Yes, that is astroturf. And an astronaut! Ha ha.

Bookwinkle’s Children’s Books. They do awesome floats since Christie took over.

The book fairy! Who also doubles as a high school science teacher by day.

Mendo Parents for Peace arguably belongs in the Hippies post, coming tomorrow, but I’m putting it here, just because I can.

I forget what group this woman was with, but she was intense. And better than the Obamaite asshole who was haranguing us for sitting and watching the parade, rather than “doing something.” Since, obviously, people who watch parades are not politically active. And, you know, way to get me to vote for your sell-out, pussy candidate. I shouted back “NO YOU CAN’T” when they shouted “yes we can,” but I was drowned out by a bevy of girls who did not look old enough to vote, let alone know what FISA is.

The Eileen Hawthorne Fund, which pays for low-cost spay/neuter services. Please alter your pets!

The Little River Inn…I’m not sure what the dog ate my homework thing is all about. Although there are dogs in the background. But homework, at an inn? Confusion.

So, for readers who are just tuning in, the Mendocino Fourth of July Parade is kind of a big deal. I mean, I love parades, as I never miss a chance to mention, and this parade is the grandaddy of all parades. The Parade. Everyone turns out for it, I get my annual sunburn, and it’s a glorious time, because Mendocino is a place filled with hippies and creative people and insane people, and it all comes out in The Parade. I usually break my parade posts into chunks just because there are a lot of photographs, and I like to savor the parade flavor for a few days, and in honor of our hardworking firemen and women and emergency services, I’m starting with them.

One thing I definitely noticed about this parade was that the new, shiny, actual functioning fire trucks were not out in force this year, for obvious reasons. Instead, they had the backup and muster vehicles out. And let me tell you, the applause for the firemen was sustained and awesome. I almost felt a patriotic fireman-loving tear in the corner of my eye, but it turned out to be Tristan’s hair.

The flag guard, which opened the parade. We have a Coast Guard station in Fort Bragg, so those are actually our genuine uniformed servicemembers, not a group we borrowed for the occasion.

Mendocino’s muster truck. For those of you who don’t know what musters are, they are fireman parties with old fire trucks. Please note that we were sitting across from the fire department.

One of Albion-Little River’s regular trucks.

One of Elk’s fire trucks, still in service. I drove this fire truck once! Not in a parade, though.

Another Elk truck.

Search and rescue! How can you not love that.

Search and rescue, showing off their toys.

An abalone diver, and prey. Abalone actually only have one foot, incidentally. Dive safe!

The VFW crew.

From this…

…to this:

Expect more parade photos in the coming days.

p.s. I chose the Albion-Little River Fire truck just for Suzy and Oliver (you may not comment, but I know you lurk)!

I just learned that Robert Roland, a volunteer with the Anderson Valley Fire Department, died yesterday morning of a heart attack sustained while fighting the fires. While I didn’t know Mr. Roland, I was sad to learn about his death; he had apparently only moved to the area recently, and he was a very gung-ho volunteer from the start, despite his age. His choice to get involved and active in his new community may have cost him his life, but it does not go unnoticed or unappreciated, and it’s a sobering reminder that fighting fires can be quite dangerous. My condolences to his wife and the Anderson Valley Fire Department.

Take a moment to do something nice for your local fire department; firefighters from 41 states along with the National Guard and California Conservation Corps are helping us here in California, but fire crews everywhere deserve your appreciation.

A friend of mine and I ventured to Mendocino last Friday since it was a nice, sunny day, and we wandered around Evergreen Cemetery, the smaller of Mendocino’s two cemeteries. Actually, Mendocino has a pretty large cemetery population, considering that the village isn’t actually that large; two cemeteries does seem a bit excessive. Lest you think that I’m some sort of cemetery fiend, we also ambled around the rest of Mendocino. And ate cookies.

At any rate, it was interesting to contrast Evergreen with Rose Memorial, since the two cemeteries have a very different look and feel. Evergreen feels more homey, in a way, with a sweeping view across the vilage, part of Big River, and the ocean, and a scattering of graves which almost feel like they were sprinkled, rather than methodically laid out. Rose Memorial is a mixture of old, more casual graves, and more stiff modern graves in neat little rows of brass plaques for easy mowing. I’m not sure I like one better than the other, they’re just different.

Evergreen has graves which are a bit older, and a lot of broken headstones, unfortunately. My companion told me that there was a rash of vandalism at Evergreen a few years ago, which probably accounts for the damaged headstones. Some of them are propped up against their bases, while others are just lying on the ground, which is kind of sad. As at Rose Memorial, there are a lot of names I recognize; the Lansings, for example, have a large plot at Evergreen.

There are also some interesting differences in the styles of the headstones at the two cemeteries. Evergreen has more quotes on its headstones, and the ever-present hands pointing upwards have their backs facing out at Evergreen, rather than the palms, as is the case at Rose Memorial. Evergreen also has a couple of clasped hands, which I rather like, thematically. There are also a lot of cool headstone decorations, like a welcoming open gate on the headstone for a deceased clergyman.

There are many more handmade headstones and grave markers at Evergreen. I think that this may be because Rose Memorial is a bit more strict about headstones and decorations, which is kind of a bummer. I loved some of the decorations on the graves at Evergreen, since they really captured the spirit of the people buried there. One grave was really excellent, with what amounted to a small garden planted on top; you could never get away with that kind of thing at Rose Memorial.

This cemetery also feels slightly more segregated. Not in a bad way, just that people are grouped together more, rather than scattered across the cemetery as they are at Rose Memorial. The Masons, for example, are all by themselves in fenced area, and there’s a little Irish section , and a cluster of Germans. Although the Swedish graves are scattered apparently at random; it would appear that Swedes don’t mind mingling.

One thing that’s interesting about Evergreen is that there are a lot of foreign graves, from people who obviously moved to California with the hopes of making their fortunes and then died young. The huge number of graves of men in their 20s really illustrates how brutal the logging industry was in the 1800s. This cemetery is also a reminder of the big Finnish and Swedish community we have up here.

Evergreen also has a separate Jewish cemetery within the cemetery, and it is totally beautiful and awesome. It embodies the Jewish attitude of simplicity when it comes to burial, and almost all of the graves have beautiful handmade markers. Some of my favorite headstones were in the Jewish section, like a pair of boulders incised with the names of a couple, and a grave with a granite bench at its foot for visitors to sit on. The Jewish section also has plantings of flowers and other foliage, and lots of little offerings on the graves, like works of art and jewelry.

The weather is pretty murky these days, so this may be my last entry in the cemetery tour for awhile. That and my lack of a car make trips further afield a bit challenging, but never fear, the cemeteries of Mendocino County will continue!

(RSS readers, there is a slideshow in this post of images from Evergreen if you want to see some of the features I’ve written about in this post.)

The moment you are all waiting for has arrived. The main delight of the Mendocino Fourth of July parade is, of course, the hippies. This is why we all go. It was so difficult for me to sort through all the images and just pick out a few, but here they are. Once again, I’ve put the bulk of the photographs behind the jump, so that people on slow connections will not be tormented when they load the main page. (Which reminds me, dear readers…do we like the hiding things behind the jump thing? Or do we disapprove? I would like to find a way of making the post expand, rather than shuttling you to another page, so if anyone knows how to do that with Movable Type, please let me know.)

Here’s the start of the peace brigade…I note that the Republicans were entirely absent this year. Curious. And tragic.

Here’s my buddy Abe, holding some balloons. I believe that he was marching with Students Against the War, which also had my favourite sign in the entire parade:

Because pirates need peace too. And so do…dinosaurs?

Click onward for daring aerial feats, clowns, and…more nudity!
[...]

Many local businesses submit entries in the parade, which have incredibly varied levels of creativity. This year, I was a huge fan of the MacCallum house, since their entry, well…just look at it:

Yes, you are seeing two ladies in bed, waving flags. But wait, there’s more:

After that, I’m not sure why any business even bothered. But there were some awesome entries. Here’s a charter boat company:

I don’t recall the name of the company, but I am…really impressed.

Click onward for more shots of business, including the spectacular Gallery Bookshop entry.
[...]

Like many communities across the United States, Mendocino celebrates Independence Day with a parade of epic proportions. It’s legendary, and people come in from all over the coast to watch the parade. The parade starts out fairly mundane, as parades do, with law enforcement, military, and, of course, fire trucks.

This fire truck has a neat twist, an American flag integrated into the grille. I wonder if it counts as desecration when the grille gets covered in insects?

This is the cow man. He always marches in the parade, dragging along some sort of livestock. This year, the duck totally stole the show.

More behind the jump, for the sake of those on slow connections.
[...]