Selvom Valdosta umiddelbart virker til at være en lille by hvor der aldrig rigtigt sker noget, så finder man ud af at der faktisk er en hel del mennesker her, når byen har et fælles arrangement - som f.eks. juleoptog!
I USA er det meget normalt at man har optog til Thanksgiving, jul, 4th of July, og flere andre helligdage m.m.
Flere timer før optoget skulle starte var enkelte allerede begyndt at slå sig ned langs gaden med klapstole og snacks.
Optoget bestod af en hel masse gamle biler, store trucks med lange trailere som var ombygget til forskellige jule-vogne, lastbiler med åbent lad, brandbiler, marching bands, spejdere, og andre tilfældige mennesker som havde lyst til at gå med i optoget.
Fælles for dem alle var at de gerne havde en eller anden form for budskab, hvoraf det mest gennemgående var en reklame for deres firma.
Optoget varede over en time, og sluttede af med biler med kæmpe jul (og en enkelt monster truck), og motorcykler som larmede frygteligt meget.
På trods af mange kommercielle indlæg, var det rigtig hyggeligt med julemusik m.m. og det var sjovt at se et lille, lokalt optog fremfor de endnu mere kommercielle optog fra de større byer.
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Even though Valdosta doesn't seem like a very big town and there's hardly ever anything going on, you realize that there actually live quite a few people here when there is a bigger event going on - like the Christmas parade!
Here in the US it is very common to have parades for Thanksgiving, Christmas, 4th of July and other holidays etc.
Several hours before the parade was to start, there were already a bunch of people lining up along the street with their fold out chairs and snacks.
The parade consisted of a whole lot of old cars, big trucks and long trailers which had been transformed into Christmassy decorated wagons. Also firetrucks, motor cycles, boy and girl scouts, marching bands and much more. - I am detailing this cause we really don't have anything like these parades back home!
Common to all participants was that they all had some kind of a message - the most common was an advertisement for some local company.
The parade lasted for over an hour and finished with cars with gigantic wheels (and one monster truck), and some very noisy motor cycles.
In spite of the many commercial elements, the parade was really nice and cute, and it was funny to see one of these smaller, local parades as opposed to the much more commercial big ones from the bigger cities.
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