8/16/09

The UFO Festival Parade -- Roswell, NM

I know it's been a long time since I've broken radio silence, but the wife has posted some photos on her blog of our recent trip to Roswell, NM over the Fourth of July weekend, and as she decided to call me out on my lack of recent posts, I thought I'd answer by giving you all a glimpse at what was one of the strangest events from that weekend of a scant month ago: the UFO Festival Parade.

We'll start with a look down Main Street (below).

Looks normal enough, right? Lots of cars, people milling around, clear skies. So why does Evin look so frightened?


Because kids are freaking smart, that's why. She knew -- KNEW -- that there was going to be some freaky stuff going down that night, and it might have started when she saw the guy in the next pic.

Yup, it's a Yoda backpack. Innocuous, you say? Not enough to give an infant the Bug-Eyed Crazy Stare, you say? You may be right. But do you know what is? THIS:


AAAAHHHH!!! AAAAHHHH!!! AAAAAAAAHHHHHH!!!!!!


Later, the parade got started in earnest. Yes, that is Jefferson Starship (minus Grace Slick) riding on a trailer hitched to a pickup truck bearing a banner proclaiming them the "Grand Martians" for the parade. Oh, how the mighty have fallen.
Up next, a gaggle of aliens from various points of the galaxy.

Followed by an alien of a much more local type: the Split-Bearded Redneck Dragon Enthusiast.

Also: the streets were full of Pooh.

Unless I miss my guess, these next folks are only about 2 decades too late to jump on the hey-aren't-the-Coneheads-hip-and-cool bandwagon. But extra points for putting their ACTUAL CHILD in a spaceship-shaped stroller.

Much to my surprise, there were not one but TWO different "floats" created by companies that promised to give your little ones the birthday of their dreams thanks to the presence of people dressed in costumes. And by "birthday of their dreams," I of course mean "event that will haunt their recurring nightmares well into adulthood."

The tall drink of water on the right (below) was a dude. We'll leave it at that.


Our "out of state" visitors even have an official welcome vehicle!


Finally, things wrapped up with a trio of "out-of-this-world" (sorry) musicians who tried (mostly in vain) to get people pumped and singing along to some original compositions. Their lack of success in that area proved that aliens continue to crash in Roswell right up to the present.

I hope you enjoyed this long-delayed, mostly mocking pictorial overview of the UFO Festival Parade in Roswell, NM. And I hope you're not scarred for life by the bug-eyed lady smoking cigarettes, as I was.
-- The Curmudgeon












1 comment:

Denyse said...

I'm overwhelmed.