How Dallas

Last week was the annual Week of the Young Child parade down MLK Boulevard in Dallas. This is a very odd event that I thought deserves mention. Our good friend, Rebecca who is a teacher in Dallas Independent School District (DISD) was there and reported on the event that is so very ... Dallas.

The Child Care Group runs some Head Start programs and other places for 3,4, and 5 year old kids from around the city. These wide-eyed innocents are told by their teachers that they are going to be in a parade! Well, the kids can't wait. This parade consists of these little kids walking a mile through the roughest part of town, past boarded up houses, empty lots, and liquor stores. The newspaper reported crowds of onlookers, but our eyewitness account says the truth is more like some old folks sitting on the porches of their ram-shackle houses and homeless people hanging out on the street corners who stop their drug-dealing for a few minutes to watch the odd spectacle of toddlers trudging hand-in-hand, waving to some guy lifting a bottle wrapped in a paper bag.

The only float in the parade is a flat bed trailer pulled by a pick-up truck with a bunch of metal folding chairs on the back. Sitting on the chairs were a couple of "grandmas" that each center adopts. The celebrities in attendance were McGruff, the crime dog, Winnie-the-Poo, the Fire Department Dalmation, and someone dressed in a fox costume. (These are all people dressed up in costumes.)

At the end of the parade, the kids are made to sit on the grass and then line up to get back on the buses and head back to the centers. The kids are oblivious to why this is all being done, as are those of us who heard about it and couldn't help but laugh at the images it conjures.