4th of July Parade

We are traveling towards our next National Park the "Black Canyon on The Gunnison."  We are spending this evening in the little town of Salina, Utah.  I took in its 4th of July parade.  Sue decided to relax at camp. I went downtown and set my camp chair up on the sidewalk in front of Mom's Dinner and a bright blue building with the sign, "Pool Beer" written across its front.  I peeked in through its dusty windows.  It looked like it had been closed a long time.  At the beginning of the parade an airplane flew real low down the street and dropped a bunch of T-shirts, tote-bags and candy.  Some of the shirts landed on the roofs. The color guard appeared at the front of the parade; serious looking old fellas on horseback carrying a large American flag.  Everyone on the sidewalks rose to their feet, took their hats off and put their hands over their hearts.  There was no music only the clip-clop of the horses, and the flag flicking in the wind.  The procession of twenty riders passed. Then everyone sat down and applauded Miss North Salina and her runners-ups waving from a mile high 4x4 monster wheel pick up.  A few clowns on ATVs doing circles & wheelies followed, then a car dealer & his family throwing candy at he crowd.  There was a guy standing beside me on the sidewalk drinking out of an open container.  He grabbed the edge of one of the American flags that were displayed up and down the street, held it out towards us and said, in an angry tone, "These colors don't run." Me and the other people on the street looked at each other and wondered who he was talking to in such a tone.  We were all perplexed.  He was obviously someone who dearly needed to be put back in the parade and seated alongside  Miss teeny tiny Sevier County."  Her float filled with attendants was passing by behind him.   A girl so small she could walk upright under all the 4x4 pick-ups in the parade. A girl with a smile and wave as big as the Monster truck tires that pulled her float. She looked like someone enjoying the fourth of July.  He dearly needed to be put on her happy float, given a tiara and allowed to be one of her attendants.