Come on, Presidio. It's a parade for cryin' out loud!

Probably the most underwhelming community events in our town are our parades. Unlike Marfa and Alpine where the local populace turns out to enthusiastically support their various parades, you'd think that a Presidio parade was a processional to an I.R.S. audit. Our parades have just about everything you'd find in such an event: a marching band, floats, hot rods, politicians, etc. That is not where the problem lies. The problem is that many of our townspeople don't show the slightest inclination to joining in on the fun of what a parade is.

Imagine giving a pep talk to a 12 year-old about carrying a 26" bass drum a mile and a half down Main Street. Oh, and he'll need to play it non-stop, too. Outside of the encouragement of the band director and a bargain brand soda waiting at the end, that's about all a typical Presidio band kid gets out of helping out in a parade. Yeah, there'll be a few random souls whooping it up along the way, but for the most part people just stand there and stare expressionless. Weird.

I think the underlying problem in this situation is that we lack ownership in this town. So many of us either still count Ojinaga as our home town, or we haven't decided that Presidio is worth rooting for--win, lose, or draw. We are not yet a true community. We all happen to live in the same village, but the esprit de corps is absent. We all love to cheer the local baseball champs, but forget about cheering on the local team that has no chance at the playoffs. We all want to be a part of the fervor when times are great, but what about the lean times?

I guess you have to keep trying...

Viva Presidio!