Smyrna Christmas Parade

Today we went and braved the -12° temperatures for 7 hours waiting for Alexandria’s appearance in the Smyrna Christmas Parade. Okay, I’m exaggerating a bit, but it was cold and we were there for what seemed like an eternity waiting for our daughter to come walking up North Lowery Street (aka Murfreesboro Road) dressed as a giant Christmas present along with the rest of her Girl Scout troop.

Grown men in tiny cars
Grown men in tiny cars

We arrived early, armed with a variety of electronic devices to record the event for posterity and cleverly positioned ourselves towards the end of the route insuring a good view and an easy exit. And then waited… and waited some more. Finally we could make a troop of Girl Scouts dressed as Christmas presents approaching. Unfortunately it was another Girl Scout troop and so the wait continued. Did I mention it was cold?

About 5 minutes after the wrong Girl Scout troop went by, Susie got a call. It was Alex’s troop leader informing us that they had finished and she was waiting for us at her car. Huh? Susie and I looked at each other puzzled. How in the world did we miss her? Sue expressed her confusion to the troop leader and was told that Alex’s troop was informed that they didn’t need to walk the whole route and had stopped about 200 yards short of the end of the actual parade route. Or about 100 yards from where we were.

I was disappointed. My wife was livid. As it turns out, some dumb ass woman in the Girl Scouts organization made this decision. Why the group in front of Alex’s finished, but hers didn’t, I don’t understand. But my wife has pledged to make a few phone calls tomorrow and identify the culprit so she can contact her for what I’m sure with be a very pleasant conversation.