Why, oh, why would a blogger ever leave home without a camera? I ask this because words will certainly fail to do justice to my latest favorite Hamptons moment. The thing is, when a Hamptons girl is stopping by the drugstore on a Saturday evening for some Chapstick, she just wouldn't expect to need photographic documentation - which is why I don't have a picture of the fire truck parade.
Mom was here for a visit over the weekend, and at some point on Saturday her Chapstick went missing. So on the way back from duck pizza at World Pie out in Bridgehampton, we stopped by the local chain-drug-superstore. Chaos ensued, as it turns out that Mom is just a little bit picky about her skin care products (we don't think of ourselves as high maintenance... we just want it how we want it. I come by it honestly). Mission more or less accomplished, we headed back to the Jeep to the sound of blaring sirens rolling past.
Refer back to my post of 9/11 of this year if you need a refresher, but that many sirens that close to me does still make me a little bit skittish. All downtown NYC 9/11 survivors, I think, quickly identify and assess such things - almost without realizing it. In my case, I couldn't smell anything burning, so I looked around to find the emergency vehicles. They were on the side road at the intersection with Main Street, and they didn't seem to be moving very fast, so Something was clearly Up.
But... they seemed brighter than usual. A LOT brighter than usual. And looking down the street, there were a bunch more coming along.
So it turned out we had stumbled upon a parade. All of the fire trucks were wrapped up in string after string of Christmas lights, from the front bumpers to their ladders. There were wreaths and light-up, blow-up reindeer and Santas on the roofs, and assorted light sculptures attached to the back ends. The firemen were following along behind in their gear. The very last truck was carrying Santa and Mrs. Claus through town, presumably to preside over the Village Christmas tree lighting in the park.
What else could we do but stand out there in the cold and watch Santa drive by?
Naturally, immediately upon returning home, the Chapstick turned up in Mom's pocket. So the trip to the drugstore was a wasted one... right?
Several lessons learned, here: Sometimes it takes a little insignificant chaos to get you into the right place at the right time. Take the &%*@! camera - it's small. The best holiday moments are the unexpected ones. But most importantly: You don't ever have to be too old, too stressed out, or too jaded for Santa Claus.
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