| 12:36p |
Anzac Day
I went to my very first Anzac Day march yesterday. I was quite surprised to realise that I'd never been to one before. It was quite pleasant. My bus to the city, which is usually empty during public holiday mornings, was instead packed with smiling war veterans wearing their medals, families and young people heading to the parade. I went along to wave at Geoff's grandfather, who was marching in the dentistry corp. There were so many different people who helped in the war- submarine people, entertainment people (they played movies to the soldiers), spies...lots of unexpected groups.
Here are some Anzac Day march highlights:
> The catcalls to the elderly nurses marching
> The children playing the triangle in the marching bands
> The Millenium Marching Band, who defied convention by wearing all black outfits with long purple capes over the top, thus looking like students from Hogwarts
> The navy officer who walked over to the side of the street and kissed his wife during the parade
> The support of the crowd for the guy who had to scoop up the poo after the horses had walked by
> The free flags
> Being able to walk freely along the middle of George Street once the parade was over
> The applause for the guy with a weird, pointy moustache- it pointed out to the side and defied gravity
Geoff and I were standing near this guy who seemed to know everyone marching. He kept calling out things like, "Sam! Sam! You look great!" Then, towards the end of the parade, the guy yelled out, "Because it's Anzac Day, you can kiss my wife!" And a man came over and kissed his wife on the mouth! Weird or what?
Thinking about wars of the past, I felt really grateful that none of the men in my life have been taken away to fight battles in unknown lands, for years on end. It gave me a strange feeling to think of that- I felt sad and happy at the same time. But mostly I felt grateful. |