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| You can take a historic tour of our city on this trolley. I think that sounds fun. I know, history nerd. |
It has been a tradition that roughly the same people gather at the same corner to watch the parade each year.
Monte always sits near a friend, Kevin, so they can swap jokes and comments about the floats, politics and current events.
It’s a tradition that all the high school class reunions happen over the 4th of July holiday. Each class reunion has a float in the parade for the classmates to ride on.
Monte and Kevin LOVE to yell out just how old
the people on the float are.
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| Those are our friend’s parents in the front seat of the golf cart. When Monte and Kevin hollered out their age, Joan was quick to yell back that she was young for her grade. Love it! |
I think one year, they got the age wrong
and were quickly corrected.
No one thinks Monte and Kevin are funnier than Monte and Kevin.
They are amusing, I’ll give them that.
Last year, when we were packing up the chairs after the parade was over, they mentioned making a podcast of their parade commentary.
We all laughed and left it at that.
A week or so before the 4th, Kevin contacted Monte about “going official” with their from-the-sidelines commentary.
He decided they should be called Men In Lawnchairs (with a sign to prove it) and have a sound system for all to enjoy in their humorous parade banter.
They decided to meet before the parade
and go over material.
The wives decided to put some parameters on the Men In Lawnchairs.
Don’t be mean.
Don’t go political.
Monte carried a little notebook around so that he could write jokes and one liners in as the inspiration hit.
After dinner he’d go out on the patio and “try them out” on me.
I had him scratch A LOT of jokes out pertaining to King George.
(Yes, there was more than one.)
I explained that just because we were reading “Alexander Hamilton”
and watching TURN like the history nerds that we are,
doesn’t mean anyone else was.
Monte decided that he didn’t need to fill the entire notebook.
He wanted his commentary to be “spontaneous" and "ad-libbed."
I got nervous.
Two guys showing up with microphones, chairs, a sign and an amp uninvited?
I got really nervous.
I told a few key people of The Men In Lawnchairs plan with the hopes that they’d try to talk him out of it.
Nope.
They thought it was a GREAT idea and started offering material for his notebook.
Dang!
The night before the parade was our block party.
Monte openly talked about his parade commentary intentions.
Again, it was received well.
Too well.
The weather forecast was grim with the threat of a thunder storm during the parade.
I secretly prayed for GOD’S PROVISION to literally wash this idea out by canceling the parade.
Nope.
We woke up to gray skies
but no rain.
Monte walked down to the parade super early with his notebook and chair to “set up.”
I rode my bike down later and parked it in a spot where I could make a clean get away if the Men In Lawnchairs started to bomb.
Meaning stink up the place with their material.
Not kablooey.
Either way, I was NOT going down with the ship.
It was my 4th of July too and I did NOT want to spend it cleaning eggs off my house or picking toilet paper out of my trees because of Monte and Kevin’s “spontaneous" and "ad-libbed" commentary.
It generally takes the parade about 30 minutes to get to our location so there was time for trivia and parade float rules and regulations to be announced.
Men In Lawnchairs just seemed LOUD as people filed in.
Some moved their chairs quickly after realizing there were two guys on microphones next to them.
Some stood, chairs in hand, waiting to see if they wanted to stay or go.
Some laughed right away.
Some moved closer.
I stayed back, hands on my bike, ready to take off like the wicked witch from The Wizard of Oz the second the crowd turned on the Men in Lawnchairs.
I was sure down to my core that the crowd would turn on them.
I was not going to handle that well
so my plan was to pedal like the wind
and put a For Sale sign in our front yard.
Our girls and their friends couldn’t take it and took off to find seats down the street.
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| See ya! |
But the crowd didn’t turn on the Men In Lawnchairs.
It helped that all the military groups were first in the parade and Monte and Kevin were able to thank them, some by name, when listed on the side of their vehicles like the man who was in Pearl Harbor.
I think they earned the crowd’s respect early.
Whew!
Monte confessed his fear of clowns and announced that the word clown was French for “mentally ill.”
A group of college guys hung around nearby saying things like,
“These guys are great!”
People laughed.
People waved their friends over so they could hear.
Our neighbors couldn’t believe Monte actually was doing it.
One commented that the sign made the whole thing legitimate to her.
Good call, Kevin!
The people in the parade were confused by Men In Lawnchairs.
Some just smiled and waved.
Others came up and talked with them.
Abraham Lincoln grabbed the microphone from Monte.
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| I’m not sure what he said but something about an umbrella. |
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| I guess at some point Kevin mentioned that Mary Todd was crazy. Abe may or may not have given him the stink eye. |
We noticed that if it was a martial arts group,
they’d stop right in front of Men In Lawnchairs to show their wood breaking skills.
Or if it was a street float,
they’d make sure every bell and every whistle was in full function as
they drove by Men In Lawnchairs.
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| One of the neighborhood floats. Picture by Beth Markwood. |
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| Right in front of us, the doors behind that cross opened and revealed an operating room. The surgeons were “operating” on a girl impaled by a flag! She waved. Picture by Beth Markwood. |
Even the OSU alumni band made sure the batons were tossed and caught right in front of,
you guessed it,
Men In Lawnchairs.
It wasn’t until later that we figured out they must’ve thought Men In Lawnchairs were parade judges.
It made for a great show for our
little corner of the parade route!
little corner of the parade route!
About halfway through the parade, there was a pause between floats.
I decided to pedal home fast to use the bathroom.
Just as I was pulling up to our house,
I saw the Shriners in their little cars buzzing up the road
by our house.
It was a bit surreal.
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| By the time I grabbed my camera, I only captured three of the Shriners but the entire street was filled with them. |
For a moment it was like I was living in a Dr. Seuss book
and Thing 1 and Thing 2 and The Lorax were all
going to be waiting for me
when I walked into the house.
Which would terrify me,
by the way.
Which would terrify me,
by the way.
When I rode back to the parade, I saw people leaving and asked if the parade was already over.
They said there had been a delay due to a child falling off of a float.
As terrible as the thought of that, Kevin and Monte used the extra time to interview people from the crowd.
One was McDaniel’s friend, Ser, visiting from Pennsylvania.
Men In Lawnchairs doing what they do best.
After the parade, I took off to start lunch.
Monte said people came up to he and Kevin and thanked them for entertaining them. Some introduced them to their friends from out of town who said it made the parade for them.
No one booed Monte as he walked home.
We hosted a lunch cookout for friends from out of town after the parade.
Most of our friends missed Men In Lawnchairs but were completely in favor of it and thrilled to hear every detail.
One was disappointed I didn’t record it and offered up better equipment for the next year.
Wait.
What?!
I thought this was a one and done deal.
Now they are talking bigger and better.
With possible t-shirts.
The girls gathered with friends at the park to watch the fireworks. Kids from school started approaching them about Men In Lawnchairs.
They quoted them!
They thought they were awesome!
They thought McDaniel and Ellie were awesome
because their dad was in fact one of the Men In Lawnchairs!
Ellie said it was the closest she’d ever
come to actually feeling famous.
Who would’ve ever thought…
