West Chester Old Fashioned Christmas

Editor's note-This is not a scene from the 1983 movie "A Christmas Story", this "moment" actually happened tonight!

When I first moved to West Chester, I remember sitting in my apartment at night and my TV being drowned out by the surprising sounds of Marching Bands under my window. I've gotten much better at the whole advanced noticed thing, so this year, my 3rd year here, I was much better prepared to watch and of course now, blog about this year's Christmas festivities.

The thing about this place, (and I've mentioned it before) is the diversity, right? In addition to the previously aforementioned marching bands, there were the school dance ensembles, cub scouts, classic car clubs, classic FARM TRACTOR clubs, and what I thought was really cool, a group of Chinese traditional dressed drummers from Falun Dong, (I'm pretty sure it was Dong, not Gong, the spiritual practitioners that for some reason the Chinese Communist Government beats up on a lot, but also the Russian Club from West Chester University featuring Ded Moroz (Russian Santa Claus) and his Grand daughter Snegurochka,

and finally the Bolivian Folkloric Dance group Caporales San Simon
Then as if all the holiday good feelings from the parade weren't enough, I went to the Chester County Historical Society's Auditorium to listen to the Pennsylvania Academy of Performing Arts Chamber Choir sing some traditional Christmas Carols in English, German, Latin and Russian. I remember as a kid, my mom got the entire family tickets to see Handel's Messiah at the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center in Orlando. We didn't last 20 minutes. God bless my Mom for trying to class up a pack of wild boys, but when you are 11 or 12 years old, you can't possibly appreciate let alone hold still for anything artsy fartsy. I tell you what a difference 30 years makes. This group of talented singers really could fill the room with that classic angelic sound, and if I wasn't so macho a guy, that and I'm emotionally damaged, I would have wept.

The best thing about the parade is the feelings of nostalgia it evokes, and the funny thing is, it's not like I ever experienced anything like it before. Unless you count watching A Charlie Brown Christmas and A Christmas Story on TV, suburban Central Florida doesn't lend itself towards making any great memories about Christmas time. No parades that I could walk to at night in 30 degree weather, no hot apple cider, no trees who only weeks before had been multi colored hues of red, orange, yellow and brown.

If I ever leave West Chester, I got a feeling I'll have some pretty good memories of my time here.

PS, if anyone was going to see Santa arrive by Helicopter at the American Helicopter Museum, let me know if it happens, according to the email I got from the FAA, a Temporary Flight Restriction (TFR) is in effect for 30 miles around Philadelphia, seems President Bush is in town for the Army-Navy game, so General Aviation is pretty much grounded. And on that note, GO ARMY, BEAT NAVY! (If I cared about a bunch of future officers hitting each other)