They were coming here, dressed in often amped-up-as-if-orange Patriotic arch footwear, to maybe even bald spots being hued blue and red with sunburn and white … But don’t be blue.
(And if you want something with a little less hue, and more straightforward and not so trippy — maybe? — check out the Notes From The Beat department)
For everywhere, including virtually every nightclub, you can still see such half arches — and not just the one beckoning you to go beyond onto the dike road — draped over railings and decks and featuring half circles and balls of color.
One tall man on his way to Booster Days a block away wore really high socks in the national colors, and baggy low-rider shorts to the point you couldn’t see much knee. Another also had the proverbial summer floppy hat and every inch of him was in red and white with a bit of blue.
At the band shell, with the music played by the (red)Fire Water Gospel Choir, one could see many red-hearted-shaped glasses and earrings, not golden, and talking between that person and the stage was a woman with antenna that could have passed for the US flag. The next night, and on those further on, red stars sprouted from her forehead. I knew two people in the band, and some in the food booths, but only about seven from Hudson in the hard crowd, made so by Minnesotans. The east metro represented all around, but not so much western Wisconsin.
Four pieces of watercraft were stacked high at WalMart, as high as a basketball hoop, for hitting the water in the Land of 10,000 Lakes — Minnesota — and of about 12,000 — a little known fact about their even better archrival for such, Wisconsin. This would trump the gift my father got a few weeks earlier, of a scale so as his ailing body fluctuated in such numbers, he could make med adjustments. Ranking this dad’s day gift on a scale of one to ten, with 8.5 being the watercraft … And a flyer for the Dollar Store made it official with a front-page-of-ad special placed in a lower corner, as I mused a while earlier, that is fit for either the deck or the beach, a folding chair, made wooden because dad likes that touch.
— And the sprinkled about sparklers also would lead them, if they are looking for a barometer on who is shooting off what. As in all that remains, as in their shells, of various pieces of fireworks in the alley behind the big box Flooring Solutions store, that says it will be opening soon. So you have to wait for your solutions for a bit longer. Watch your toes!
To be fair, there were only three pieces to be seen — or wait, also a fourth on this day just a few past The Fourth. What’s on their labels is telling, and makes for great satire, which I always thought is an overused term, as it often is an excuse for simply spinning things in a humorous but not necessarily insightful way. Well, so I go myself.
Take this, Mr. Obvious: Do not touch glowing wire. (Sounds like good advice). Hold in hand with arm extended, away from body. (This becomes a sport?) Keep burning end of sparks away from wearing apparel (that’s the main kind) … Hold and light only one sparkler at a time. (Not ambidextrous?) … Contains no magnesium, chlorates or perchlorates, and are not regulated as a hazardous material for surface transportation under the provisions of APA Standard 87-1. (Well thank goodness, I feel better now. Some have said this is mainly a heavy metal website.) The package can only be sold as a package (That’s why they call it a package).
And does anyone see a double entendre here? Place on hard, open surface. Do not hold in hand. Light fuse and get away. This side up.
All of the four said they were made in China, and one adds for a company in Florence, AL. But it is “Safe and Sane,” suchly registered in the state of California by the state fire marshal.
And how do they get here, to good ol’ Hudson? With more trucks seen, with flags not only off the end of the payload, but painted on the sides, in one case with all kinds of accompanying imagery that smacked of special forces soldiers in action, carrying as in Imo Jima, and in the other case only took up an estimated 10 percent of the side of the small semi. Could be a movie trailer here … —
In the main concourse right in front of other deals, WalMart workers led the charge with a stand to raise funds for a children’s hospital. It asked $2 for a hot dog, more than the price back in my day, and quite a bit over what you could buy at possibly WalMart, or for sure Aldi, and get a whole pack. I lingered then smiled and then joked about the requesite presence of The Colors, and the worker agreed, “oh yeah!” and gave a thumbs up. The Bring to the Fourth gift that was purchased was a combo of white and food-colored frosting, and gingerbread man. The Bubbly soda, silk milk, Tylenol and even Cresting toothpaste sported similar tones on their boxes.
The lead photo in a metro daily — on beating the heat and is it really that bad yet? — ran across three columns but there was not a Patriotic image or color to be seen. And I’m pretty sure this came from the conservative one of two.
It should be God Bless Us All, not just US. But loving America was the direct focus in chalk on a downtown sidewalk, halfway down its length. lots of big and colorful stars decked it out. It took-up all of a pair of concrete squares. (A nearby lobby showed a couple of world globes with the Big Three Colors all through as if a flag, that implied America is the only land in the land, all-in with no Allah and no borders. Hey, Russia and even China are much bigger!) More such renderings could be seen in the back lot of a downtown coffee shop, with two different little kids writing, hey I was here! And bright stars aplenty chalked up on the walkway on the other side of the block, with similar sentiments.
I was then falling three times, then gone away. I hit with my foot a seam in the sidewalk nearby, and it was an inch deep, running lengthwise. So down I went like a shot. Various people asked if I was OK, and it was just a little ouch on my knee, so I brushed off myself and my now gritty knee and continued on. A day or so earlier I saw a (somewhat younger I think) woman do that same thing, but she caught her balance rather quickly. I’d had a combo of the same result happen to me on a walkabout in North Hudson, but this time what hit home the most, in a reverse season, was the slick ice before and after the sidewalk seam. Like one I hit in the freezing rain many moons ago while changing lanes in the east end of St. Paul, causing my car to go into a literal tailspin.
Colorful word “baseball,” RW and B — and not rhythm and blues, as spun, where the brim of the cap should be, and a flag with odd decal, or is it a logo, in its corner.
And where there is a chance there is commerce. Even so, some venues decided to later-on be no-shows, as in close early, to avoid the show to come …
Over at Maurice’s, I’ll reference The Hill District for a change, they had this twist, calling last weekend “Red, White and Boom.” Another downtown business also went beyond the usual basic, and used the phrase “Let Freedom Ring.”
More of the typical was still seen THIS weekend, as the ghost of The Fourth Past, as a sign said simply and now too late “Happy Independence Day.” At least that middle word was a bit of a change-up. And a block away, also dated, was a cash company store that pitched, “Need some green this spring?”
That big truck redoing a bigger lot also told the tale. With a big trailer behind toting heavy equipment. But what stood out was the oversize Stars and Stripes painted across the entire long side of that truck, that thusly gave stretch limo vibes. A slightly lesser but largely similar approach was on a smaller truck, still adorned with those colors in such a way, to tout Matt’s Moving, as its flagship. If your pole is too large, to transport YOUR Old Glory.
But back to The Booster Barrage. Cause and effect. But first what I saw in the fest straight off, and straight up, set ’em up, after bar time. Or no.
It was 2:40 a.m. and there was no life at all to be shown on the main drag. And had not been, obviously, for some time, even as it was the hour for people to still be, if they’d been pushing last call, walking to their cars.
Fast forward to the weekend. There was many a young couple outside the doors of the places, vigorously discussing things. On the sidewalk’s edge, at Hudson Tap, a small group gave re-entry their best shot. They were no bad vibes here, just a lot of joking around. For a few minutes as others waited behind for their chance to get carded, but took in the show in front of them first. Inside, there was a guy who was beyond tipsy and still going, even later at other places, and was by himself. He wore a T-shirt that announced he was on a high school coaching staff at a nearby town. How would he get back to there? That thought could be a bit disturbing.
At Dick’s, there was some non-jovial rowdiness. In particular, a bouncer had taking the show outside to talk to someone who was upset about another guy, over an overture about a woman. The bouncer corrected him and said, “I heard you say, you’re f—— her.”
All in a summer day’s work.