Oakland USA

Southern Parades are best viewed while drinking Mint Juleps 

Standing in front of the Brown and Beige Episcopal Church, painted with left over paint from the old Rail Road Station.  I watched my fifth Jefferson  County Watermelon parade: 

Cop cars, 

Fire Trucks; 

Ashville Fire Trucks

Jefferson County* Waissa Truck # 7; Engine # 1; 

Gainesville Volunteer Fire Department; 

Convertable BMW's with grand Marshall for the 60th Watermelon parade; 

Marine Marching Band from Georgia playing "From the Halls of Montezuma"; 

Baby photo contest winners on flat bed trucks,
Teenage Watermelon pagent winners,
Miss. Watermelon;
regally wave at their servants.

Smokey the bear in a John Deere Tractor says "Only You!"; 

Scottish Bagpipes Marching in Plaid Kilts 

Cylar Howard Family Reunion members having fun with a  

Remote Control Car that zips around;

Candidates for future elections hand out pencils, and wave eagerly.

Free Masons and Vietnam Veterans 

Marzuq Bandits in mini clown cars doing circle eights; 

Mini Nascars driven by Mason gearing up; 

Swamp Thing- a hunting platform driving down main street; 

A mini big foot built from a Suzuki Samurai Body; 

Jefferson County Football Warriors play at 6 pm.                                                     

Confederate Soldiers march for a war that has not ended (yet)
I wave my Confederate  Battle Flag at the
boys, in the alligator hunting platform.

Memories of
when I was a hyper kid
jumping up and down for parades.
I am carried to the festival by
smells of fried Mullet, 

 wafting into
 muggy air.
Followed
by the
Sheriff
and Street
Sweepers.

Oakland USA

Alexia Lovo (sounded like Lobo) was a beautiful women with a beautiful name,  who could not find anyone to talk to.   If you saw her you would think, why does she not have any friends? One imagined Alexia with a throng of groupies.  One imagined a Hollywood Starlet with her name selling millions of tickets.  One imagined Alexia hosting a morning talk show.  

But, this image was shattered when she opened up her mouth. She always started in the middle of her thoughts. Her mouth lined with red lipstick, small but always moving, twitching, running down the stream of her ever expanding mind. She read a lot because she had a lot of time to spend alone.

Solitude was her only friend.

She read so that she could share her knowledge to all victims. Her mouth held steamed wisps of absolute truthful absurdity. 


"Do you know Big Birds address for his nest on TV's Sesame Street?  She did not expect anyone to know the answer. So, she waited for ten seconds, counting in her head: ten, nine, eight, seven, six, five, four, three, two, one and then answered aloud-"123 1/2 Sesame Street." (Her victim would stand, with a look of , Why the heck did you just tell me that.  How does that have anything to do with what we were just talking about kind of look.)


 She would shoot steam at anyone that crossed her path. Ms. Lovo was like a mail train who brought bills to all the people who accidentally crossed her path. When people saw her pushing carts, (her job at the local grocery) they walked with a determined step to the entrance.  They attempted to get to the front doors before she did.   She attempted to wave at her victims, but her victims kept their eyes forward and moved fast.  

Ms. Lovo could be talking about macaroni and cheese, or the death of her beloved grandmother in Sioux City Iowa with the same urgency. She was a runner, a runner on rails, who ran her mouth like she was a steamed-up locomotive; but there were no crossing guard to prevent people from being ran over.  Her mouth was a small powerful weapon, and she left her victims scattered for their fear of being vaporized from her released steam. Ms. Lovo stood, talked, and ate alone (chugging along all the same). People wanted to reach out to her but her smoky-whispers repelled them.

(This post was a revision from one I posted on 6.26.2010- for a note on what I think so far about revision read further).

Oakland: Colorado County

Canadian Terrorist Cells

Picture of the Canadian Terrorist was taken by my Mother.

"Paranoia is the number one killer of fourteen year old girls."

-Connie Willis "A Letter From the Clearys"

Wollheim, Donald A., and Arthur W. Saha. The 1983 Annual World's Best SF. New York, NY: DAW, 1983. Print.