St. Patrick's Day Parade March 2008

Today was the St. Patrick's Day parade in Manchester, NH. It was a little bit later in the month because Easter was so early this year. The parades that we do help us be able to afford to do the reenactment battles for the summer season. We needed a turn out of at least 15 members at this parade, and we got 21!! Wahoo! Unfortunately our captain couldn't make it today, but don't worry Joe, your troops did you proud. The boys look really great marching today, and they got some great firing in that really scared some of the crowd! :-) :-) Kris and I joined after the St. Patrick's Day parade last year, which it sounds like we should have been very happy for. Apparently it was beyond cold for the parade in 2007. But this year we got very lucky, even though it had snowed quite a bit on Friday, (Yes, snow in late March!! And just a side note, that puts us on the records as the second snowiest winter ever!!) it was actually great weather for a parade. It was just warm enough to not be considered freezing, but still cool enough to not get over heated walking a mile down Elm St. There was next to no wind, so overall it was a great day! We were marching in front of a group of military soldiers (perhaps reservists? Not too sure) and they were getting a lot of well deserved applause, but it made us feel like we were getting some of it too!! :-) Okay I'm sure some of the crowd was clapping for us, we do look pretty dang cool all dressed up. And after all we are representing the soldiers that fought the very first battle for the United States. But of course the guys behind us are fighting a war right now, and any one of them could have their lives in real danger within the next 6 months, so they deserved a lot more than applause. The boys even gave a 'present arms' for the soldiers as they walked by at the end of the parade. One of the new guys, Lorenzo, was able to make it to the parade and marched with us. We assured him that if he thought this was fun, he would have a blast at one of the weekends! I was able to get two videos of the guys before we started marching, they did an awesome job following their commands, and they looked really great today!





After the parade, most of us headed over to the Jameison's, where they had some good eats and Janie got to watch Daniel Day-Lewis run naked through the woods in Last of the Mohicans. She had a fun time showing Kolby the movie, and he seemed to find it very interesting. I actually have not seen this movie from start to finish, but sadly we have gotten rid of our TV for a year ... so anyone up for a movie night at their house?? :-) Most likely we will just rent this one in 2009 when we have the TV back. That and hopefully the John Adams series will be out on video by then too. But I ramble. There was a lot of good conversation at the Jamieson's and a fun time was had by all! For more pictures from the parade and from the Jameison's be sure to check out my album.

Believe me yours faithfully,
Rachel