Memorial Day Weekend is always a very special time in Mill Valley. The Historical Society sponsors a “Walk into History”, which covers a different neighborhood and theme each year. There is music outdoors on the Community Center lawn, and friends and neighbors mingle, eat, dance, and have fun. This year the food was great and the music was Latin, from a band called Rumbache that kept us on our feet.
The actual Memorial Day parade may be a weekend highlight. Anna marched its mile-plus length down Miller Avenue when she was 2 years old! She and I (and sometimes Daddy) were in every parade since for 10 years — with the original Sustainable Community group, then with Kumara Pre-School, then with Richardson Bay Girl Scouts.
This year, Lippy and I watched from our perch on the balcony of Mill Valley Music. Anna, a teen, was with her own friends downtown. The parade was as sweet and old-timey as ever, with its mix of politicians-in-convertibles, town notables, bands playing from flatbeds, scouts, martial artists (who stop and perform), wiener dog troops, swim teams, bikes, scooters, and the uniquely Mill Valley “Fashion Police”, who zoom up on scooters to give out tickets (clothing store discounts) for “Reckless Coordinating” and “Failure to Heed Spouse’s Advice”. Yeah, we’ve gotten a few of those.
It wouldn’t be a parade without lots of Scouts.
This year’s Mountain Play, which is performed each spring in an outdoor ampitheater on Mt. Tamalpais, is Man of La Mancha.
The Marin Youth Performers just put on The Music Man. What an impressive float!
This long-time drumming circle is based at the Redwoods Retirement Community.
Swimming to a pool near you ..
We are patrons of plumber Stanley Searles, whose distinctive blue truck is seen around town.
‘Til next year!
Photos by Susan Sachs Lipman
