Small Town Strut: The Best of Bloomington’s Fourth of July Parade

1. A 20-something man sitting on a roof who hollered in the same faux-energetic tone for each group that walked by. Favorite: “Yeah Pentecostals!”
2. The young boy with the not-so-subtle scowl who sat crossed-legged, chin on hands, on the edge of a church float decorated as Noah’s Arc. A woman with a self-important disposition marched backward as she instructed the row of children draped with animal-shaped hats to perform sign language to a Christian children’s song, which hummed from a small portable CD player. Note: In twenty years, these children will still recognize this as the day they swore off organized religion, or, all contact with the deaf.
3. Semi-shaped go-kart.