4th of July

July 4, 2007

Do you know where Winslow, Maine is? It's one of those places where if you drive to the middle of nowhere and take a left, you'd find it. Actually, since joining the 15th Alabama, I've noticed a lot of that in Maine...hmmm. Anyway, it was quite the drive for me and Dave, especially since we couldn't leave until we got out of work. We had Mike (Captain), Steve (1st Sergeant), Chris (Surgeon), Tom (Corporal), Dave and Ben for soldiers while me and Kate represented the civilians.

So let me show you how I spent my 4th of July holiday!
I got to meet another one of our younger members, Kate. She's a real sweetheart and she walked the parade route with me which really put me at ease. I was worried that I was going to be the only one. We actually turned into the company's propaganda scouts. Tom turned to us after our first "tourist-y" encounter (a parade watcher coming over to take a photo with Tom) and told us to hand out cards with the Company's contact information on them. I mostly held the stuff and sent Kate over to pass the cards out, which she did very well.


Here's a great photo of the guys firing their muskets. I actually had to ask the Captain to wave me forward so I could get this shot (no pun intended). When he did I had to trot out in front of them, which was farther than I would have had time for if I didn't have the signal from the Captain.


This photo gives you a better look at Mike and Tom with the flag.


Here are the guys standing next to this blockhouse which is all that is left of Ft. Halifax which was built by the English to ward off enemies during the French and Indian war.

Ft. Halifax: National Park Service

Finally, here's another photo of Kate except at the end of a fairly warm day at the end of the parade, which turned out to be almost two miles long. Thank goodness they had a "VIP" bus service to take us back to our cars.

Well, it wasn't as warm as years past, according to the veterans of the parade, but almost everyone finished their canteens full of water (no, there's no whisky in them...this time >wink<). I don't blame them though, it was warm. What was nice though, was that Mike kind of tried steering us into the shade when ever it looked like we were going to have to stop for a while. We might have mutinied if he hadn't, and Vicky would have been mad at him, too. But it was nice, me and Kate really were not looking forward to having to play nurse to the surgeon, I kept having flashbacks to the Train Robbery a few days previously where Deb was pretending to dig bullets out of soldier's arms. >shudder<

On to the next event! Groton!