Light Up The Night

A friend called yesterday and invited me to the Anoka "Light Up The Night" parade.  She's never been to it before.  I've never been to it before either and I live here.  So we met downtown and staked out our spot of the sidewalk in front of Redman's Flooring Store.  It was cold and it got colder.  We could literally watch the temperature plummet from 45 degrees to 35 degrees because the TCF bank sign was right across the street.  We were seated near a group of children.  One of the kids was a dinosaur. The only girl was a mermaid.  One was a super hero.  And the skinniest kid was a skeleton with a costume that zipped up right over his head.  He really looked like a skeleton.  The kids all had buckets for the candy.  When the street lights were turned off we knew the parade was coming.  An old fire truck decked out in Christmas lights started us out.  It's siren sounded like something out of a really old movie.  We saw floats but no marching bands, no politicians, and only one dance team go by.  And there was no candy.  The kids in front of us were chanting, "Can!  Dy!  Can!  Dy!"  But until a woman from the group pulled some out of her purse, they didn't get any candy.  Poor little tykes were bummed out.  And I was bummed out for them.  A parade without candy?!  Unthinkable.  After the parade we headed down to the bonfire.  On our way we visited a wine store.  One of the people in the group is related to the wine store owner.  In this store you can make and bottle your own wine.  One customer was getting married so she and her fiancee make all the wine they will need for their wedding.  After our tour of the shop we went to see the bonfire.  Actually there were 4 bonfires burning in cement urns of 4 feet diameter.  Inside the bonfire were chunks of oak mixed with, of all things, strings of Christmas lights.  The lights made the fire burn in blue, aqua, green and orange which were pretty but Hello!  Toxic!  Black toxic smoke rose from the bonfires and smelled terrible.  We didn't want to stay and endanger our health so we went to grab a coffee.  Both coffee shops on Main Street (along with all the other stores besides bars) had closed so we headed over to Perkins to warm up and talk for a while.  Sometimes the best plans are last minute plans.