Yesterday, we in America celebrated our independence from Great Britain. The funny thing is, in celebrating our passage from a colony to a sovereign nations, we in the US almost never think about--or mention, at any rate--that England was the country from which we liberated ourselves. I guess it's hard to hold a grudge against someone who hasn't had power over you for 238 years.
Still, I have to wonder: Is it sacrilegious to think about what our parades might look like if we still gave fealty to the Crown? In other words, is it improper to post an image of girls on bicycles the 1951 Festival of Britain?
Well, since one of the great revelations of middle age is that guilt is, for the most part, a useless emotion, I'm going to post such an image just because I like it.
Today, in parades all over the nation, we will see bicycles decorated for the occasion. Some are embodiments of patriotic fervor, like this bike:
I'm not sure what brand it is, or whether it's even made in the US. It has an American flag on its seat tube, but it looks new enough not to have been made here. Still, it looks like an old American cruiser; it even has an Ashtabula crank--unlike the retro-repro models, which usually have cheap three-piece cotterless cranks.
But I'm not going to quibble. For contrast, here's something with a more contemporary flair:
"Jersey Knitter" decorated those bikes a few years ago for the parade in the Garden State community of Montclair. I would imagine that when those colors spin, the visual effect might be like a pinwheel firework.
In contrast to those examples of patriotic pedal power, here's a Dutch-style city bike decked out for the most American of holidays:
In some weird way, this bike makes sense. If nothing else, the white bike makes a good "canvas", if you will, for the color palette. Also, in a weird way, it makes sense historically. After all, were it not for the Dutch (and French, Spanish and Poles), the American colonies might not have gained their independence from the British crown. In fact, the Netherlands was the first nation to recognize the United States of America as a sovereign country.
Plus, the Dutch gave the world Mondrian. What would Look bicycles and the LaVie Claire team used for their logos if they didn't have Mondrian's compositions of lines and primary colors?
I've been to the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade twice: once with Eva and the other time with Tammy. The time I went with Eva was one of the coldest Thanksgiving Days since the first MTDP in 1927; the time I went with Tammy was one of the warmest.
But I digress. It's usually the balloons that get most of the attention. Sometimes an unusually elaborate or extravagant float will show up on the evening news, but the most air time is devoted to the newest and most impressive-looking balloons.
Little attention is paid to the participants on bicycles. I'm not talking only about the floats that are propelled by one or more pairs of pedals: I'm thinking about the costumed people on two wheels. Occasionally, someone will ride a single bicycle or tricycle, but it seems that couples on tandems are the most common velocipedic parties to the parade.
