Puppets And Giants

We went down to see Springfield's annual post-Thanksgiving Big Balloon Parade. And in typical fashion we made it there a half hour late. We had missed the Cat In The Hat; but caught the Big Wreathe.

Didn't see the giant Toy Soldier, but did witness Nicholas the Penguin.

Went without the famous Garfield the Cat. But instead got Raggedy Ann.

Good enough.

Dwarfed under the floating giants and barely acknowledged by the spectator, were humans scurrying about, tugging at ropes and strings, guiding and animating the otherwise inanimate.

Or alternately filling the spaces between, with marching and dance.

Despite the soggy weather it was festive and fun, a great event for the holiday weekend. Just over too soon, but that was our bad. After a waving Santa led the last of the paraders around the far corner, the crowds broke up and everyone went back to their holiday business.

We headed back to the car and steeled our nerves for some Black Friday traffic and shopping, when the bloggerette suddenly decided she hadn't had enough of the big city and made an issue of it to that affect. So we decided to extend our downtown visit a little and turned around to rejoin the other visitors, a good chunk of which had disappeared into nearby Tower Square...

...where the festivities continued.

There was a long line to get into the annual Festival of Trees raffle, so we opted instead for a good old fashioned -very old fashioned- marionette show going on nearby. Kelly and the baby found a place to set in the crowd and watch the age old tale of Cinderella, which was already mid-show.

Hmm. What form of entertainment was this?? No electricity. No lights or special effects. No high score, no explosions, no guns., no calvary. Yet all the kids were rapt with attention.

There was no intertubes, no streaming gigabits, no lasers, no choreography. Just a couple folks tugging at strings behind the scenes. Animating the inanimate.

With all the audio-visual-instant-gratification now flashing daily before our eyes, how can some bouncing puppets on strings still be entertaining?

Where's the fun? where's the challenge?

...it must be in the imagining.