I remember my days back in Hollister. A small town of only about 35,000 people located in San Benito County. My older sister was highly involved in community projects. Despite living in Campbell with us, she was still highly involved in Hollister community service. She helped set up the carnival that came to the fairgrounds every year, and then volunteered at rides. She helped at this old folk home downtown and befriended many of the senior citizens who lived there. But most of the community service she did was organized through her high school. San Benito High School was the high school through which all of the teenagers throughout the city funneled through, as it was the only one in the city. The fact that the town was so diminutive meant that all of the townspeople came together during holidays and events.
The annual Memorial Day parade was an assembly of cars and sometimes, decorated city buses all showing off their spirit of this holiday. The parade spanned about 4 blocks by 4 blocks and they did what they called “The Main Street Lap”, which primarily involved Main Street and First Hollister Avenue. There were food, drink and 3 stages where local bands could show off their music.
I had helped my sister and her senior class decorate their old 1990 Ford F250 Flatbed Truck which was going to be their parade float. We had all sorts of spray paint and different cardboard that was to go into this masterpiece. The planned design was to have the red, white, and blue sprayed onto the front and sides of the truck, then paint the flatbed all black like a stage. I remember that the finished product looked significantly better than any of the other classes floats. The freshmen only had a decorated Honda Civic that they had to get a teacher to drive!
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The day of the parade came around and the town reeked with excitement. The days leading up to the parade were full of excitement. This was larger than the city’s Thanksgiving Parade. I helped my sister in setting up one of the stages. The North Stage was actually the smallest stage of the 3, fitting only about 4 band members and their equipment comfortably. But this stage was for the high-school bands. My sister’s boyfriend at the time was a guitarist in a punk rock band and I remember he performed on the stage we set up.
The mayor announced on the setup PA system that the parade was starting in fifteen minutes. My sister and I walked to the large parking lot where all the floats were parked. I’d have to say there were about probably about 30-35 floats parked in rows. We had trouble finding the senior float because most of the other floats were decorated the same way, which was to be expected due to the topic of the holiday, which is American unity over a tragic event, similar to 9/11. When we got to the float, I remember the way the sun shined off the shiny spray paint made me feel like, so cool to be a part of this big project and to hang out with all of these high-schoolers. Another volunteer came to the parking row where we were and told us where to drive our float to prepare for the loop. The assigned driver for our float drove the car and probably about 10 other seniors to our starting place. Which was in front of the downtown sushi joint, AJ Sushi. Everyone loved their sushi and 2 of the kids ran in to get a couple orders of California rolls for the float dancers.
We were instructed that when the “parade music” starts playing to start following the other floats lined up along this street. I recall a butterfly feeling in my stomach as I heard the music start playing. Why did I agree to this? I am literally doing a choreographed dance in front of the whole city. It was going to be on Kion 546 that evening. A Kion news team had come and interviewed the students working on the float and wrote an article about the teenage participation in the Memorial Day Parade. Everyone was going to be there. My sister read my mind, or maybe the scared look on my face, and said something like:
“Remember how much we practiced this?”
We did practice this dance a lot. I remember the many afterschool days where my sister and her friends would pick me up and then take me to the high school after stopping for McDonald’s or other fast food places for an extra meal.
“Ye… Yeah, but I don’t know if I can do this…”
“Well,” She says, “You can and you will… because I’ve had to take you to all these practices and meetings, so you have no choice”
I remember that I realized it was pointless to complain so I just shut up and left the nervousness on the inside. Or managed it as best as I could, which was probably not very well.
We entered the loop and started doing our dance as we drove around. It was exhilarating to have all of these people watching me dance. It must have been strange for an eleven-year-old dancing with a bunch of eighteen-year-olds, as I was visibly much younger.
Around our third lap, we became aware of loud arguing over the music. Our float came to a stop to avoid a collision with the float in front of us. There were about twenty-five people protesting the parade, standing in the street and blocking the floats from going. The protester’s opinions were wildly unpopular. People from behind the barricades were yelling at them, parade performers were yelling at them I stayed on the float, but all of the teenagers who were on our float went and argued with them. This went on for a good five minutes, which felt like way more than five minutes. By that time the police had got there in unfittingly decorated memorial day police car. They ordered the protesters off the street. While the protesters reluctantly sulked off the road, everyone was cheering. This small group of people seemed to be the only ones who carried the opinion that the veterans had done horrible things out of the country, which is simply not true.
We should honor the people who sacrificed themselves for our country, and while most people do, everyone should, not just the majority. Memorial Day should be a time to come together to celebrate everyone who has died to keep America the Free, free. Almost everybody who lives in America loves the way we have freedom. According to Cato Institute, America is the 16th freest country in the world. The only way we’ve stayed this way is by fighting. Which raises the question. How do soldiers killing each other solve the world’s problems? Who knows. Anyways, the only way for wars to be won is by sending soldiers out to fight, and it is inevitable that some of these brave men and women will be killed.
I’m sure there are many more people in the United States who share the same opinion as the twenty-five or so protesters at the small parade in miniscule Hollister, California. And the point that I’m trying to convey is this: There will always be a number of people who disagree with the majority. That’s, not necessarily a bad thing. But it can be. There are definitely issues that everyone should agree on. For example global warming, moreover human impact on global warming. But Memorial Day does not have as much of a lasting effect on the world like global warming does.
To wrap this up, I think that people should try to unite. We could get much more done as a group with one opinion, then as individuals with hundreds of opinions. But again, that’s just an opinion. My opinion. Thank you to my sister for helping me recall the event and just being a great sister in general.
