Thursday, June 23, 2016

Parade

I have, to my mild shock, been elected unanimously to the post of Grand Marshall for the Magdalena Old Timers' Parade. That means I lead the parade, folks; sadly, the herd of half- wild Corriente cattle they used to drive through town ahead of it has gone the way of the street dance in the STREET, open containers, drive in windows, Juan's West Bar, and the oldest of Los Borrachos Perdidos, Monico Baca.

The position is usually a horseback one. Here is Tom Olney last year:

But I can no longer sit or control a horse easily,
 so my mind turned to thoughts of a mount. John Wilson's Triumph TR 3 came to mind, but he babies it, and would have to trailer it to town.











 Then my Scottish friend Bodie Littlejohn-- collector of cars and guns, and armor, falconer, Deerhound man, Karateka, horseman, shrink and, well, more, came to the rescue, offering his fabulous collector- fine Shelby Mustang, a car that shakes the ground when you turn on the engine. I am ecstatic, as is every fine car nut in town.




Says Bodie, "I'll drive-- you would have a hard time with the clutch anyway.Your job is to wave your hat at the pretty girls."
 I think of the last line in Tom McGuane's Crow Fair:

"Lately, I've been riding a carriage at the annual Bucking Horse Sale like an old timer, which I guess is what I'm getting to be."

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

I would lend you a ride in my 1984 Bentley Eight!, in appropriate Forest Green , but someone else pays the shipping !!

A fitting election to a champion of NM and Magdalena- Well done !!

NorfolkJohnny

Anonymous said...

Congratulations marshall Bodio! Looks like a Terlingua Racing Team logo on that sweet Shelby Mustang. Did you know Carroll Shelby once owned Terlingua?

Dusty

Franklin in Chicago said...

The parade looks like Classic
Americana!
One can almost visualize Peter
Fonda & Dennis Hopper joining
the festivities....

Moro Rogers said...

I'd lend you our Burning Man art car, the Lavinia Whateley, but we got rid of it.
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B8FjVKNHfdorMl8xemdwMFpaTm8/view?usp=sharing