“I’d really like to know who volunteered me for this,” my husband grumbled as he struggled into his yeti costume and I pushed the Velcro together for him that closed the back. He was already sweating just getting dressed to be on our club’s float in the local Christmas Parade. It was promising to be a very long night.
“Carl did,” I told him. “You were the only person that has a yeti suit.”
Willy had the yeti suit that condemned him to the cage in the parade because it was a purchase he made at our club’s annual public charity auction that funds the amazing things we do in our community. A friend, who is heavily into cosplay and is considered slightly below professional level with the costumes he’s taught himself to make, had donated the costume to the auction and my husband felt a need to bid on it and buy it. Because he had it and everyone knew he had it, he was the most likely person to wear it in the parade.
Over the past 31 years that our club has had a float in the Christmas parade we have made floats to fit all of the themes and have actually won the Grand Champion Award for BEST USE OF THE PARADE THEM 3 times in all those years. There have been some very traditional themes and some pretty bazaar themes and this year’s was among the bazaar – Christmas at the Zoo.
So, Carl decided we should build a cage, put Willy in it in his yeti suit, have Bonnie and me as zookeepers and our float was born. Logically, Willy got volunteered because of ownership of a heavy white yeti suit.
Carl decided we should call our yeti, Duane and he laughed and laughed. We didn’t get it so he explained that years ago … YEARS ago … there was a guitarist named Duane Eddy who was quite popular and … even though only 1 person in 20 or 30 with a few years age on them might know who Duane Eddy was, Carl liked the play on names and so our Duane Yeti was born.
Willy wasn’t exactly on board with ol’ Duane and less so when he found out the plan was to mic him and as the float road down the parade route he would grunt, in true Duane Yeti style, Jingle Bells.
I made a sign that said GALACTIC ZOO and another that said, “Introducing Duane Yeti” and off we went with the rest of the floats. It was 28 degrees. Bonnie and I were really cold, but ol’ Duane, hamming it up when he realized how much the crowd was enjoying him, only had slightly cold feet. He explained that dancing … and grunting in that heavy costume kept him warm from the beginning of the parade route to the end a mile away. “It’s all about the yeti fur,” he said.
We stopped for a minute in front of the judges so they could REALLY see us and our float. Bonnie, who also was wearing a mic, told the judges who we actually were … a local non-profit organization … and introduced our yeti, explaining that by some miracle in the galaxy we had taught him to sing Jingle Bells. Willy grunted out the song and everybody on both sides of the road laughed and clapped. We were a success.
Willy actually HAD a good time (that adoring, clapping, laughing crowd went a long way towards boosting his confidence) and the biggest miracle of all, 2 days later we found out that once again our float had won the GRAND CHAMPION AWARD FOR BEST USE OF THE PARADE THEME. The wooden and brass plaque is lovely and looks pretty cool beside those other 3 we’ve won over the past 31 years.
It was FUN.
Winning the award was just icing on the cake. That and the charities we sponsored for Christmas just made my heart happy and made the holidays extra special … special at the end of a stressful year when we really needed ‘special.’
Three weeks later on the Sunday before Christmas our local fire department continued a tradition they began several years ago. The Sunday before Christmas they deck out a hook and ladder truck, the Fire Chief’s vehicle and another department vehicle in Christmas lights and decorations, go neighborhood to neighborhood at designated times and ride down the streets, sirens blaring and the hook and ladder truck honking. The real live Grinch rides on the back of the firetruck waving at everyone to the delight of the neighborhood children standing along the streets with parents watching the small parade go by.
We knew the approximate time the Grinch would be coming to our neighborhood. I was wrapping gifts. I stopped and went to the storm door and looked out when I heard the hook and ladder truck announcing the arrival of Mr. Grinch. Even as an adult it is exciting – maybe because it awakens some part of the inner child we still carry with us that remembers the excitement and the wonder of Christmas.
I watched out the door and just as the entourage was approaching, I saw the little girl across the street standing at the side of the road with her parents. Just past 3 years old, she was standing there in a knit cap and a little pink coat. As the Grinch approached, she threw both hands in the air and squealed the most delightful squeal filled with excitement and anticipation and childish wonder. Suddenly I felt the magic of Christmas and years of childhood memories bubbled to the surface out of that place in my brain … in all of our brains … where they are stored for safe keeping and I burst out in unexpected tears.
I especially thank our fire department for doing this simple thing that ignites true joy in children year after year … and reignites that indescribable magic in the hearts of children of all ages.
Going into Christmas this year I could never have imagined that, except for Willy and family, the true joy of Christmas for me would come from a surprise visit from the Grinch … and the joy brought by a yeti in a cage grunting Jingle Bells.
“ God bless us every one ….”
heimdalco 