Parade work...

Saturday night was my first experience with being a fireman at the Portland Starlight Parade.  Since it was my first time, I was stuck on the tarp crew.  I should back up and describe what it was that we were doing here.  

Every year, Portland Fire runs in the Starlight Parade.  We get a group of firefighters with helmets on, an old hose wagon that used to be pulled by horses (now firefighters) equipped with christmas lights and rock music.  And we have the tarp.  You know in old movies and cartoons when a building is on fire and they tell the person to jump into the little circular tarp?  Well, it's real and it's not light.  We had probably 12 guys or so all holding onto this thing running pretty quickly from Station 1 down by the water to somewhere up near Powell's Books.  And THEN the parade could start.  So we'd chase after the wagon, stopping here and there to put kids in the tarp and toss them in the air a few times.  This gets tiring, because every kid wants to do it.  Meanwhile the wagon is still running along and we have to catch up.  And being a bunch of new guys with quite a bit of pride about being a part of Portland Fire & Rescue, we ran hard.  At most intersections along the parade route, the wagon would stop and out would slide an antique wood ladder, about 14' long with 4 ropes coming off the top.  The ladder would go up, straight into the air and we with the tarp would position below it.  Up would climb a firefighter to the very top, stand on the top rung and take a head-first dive towards the tarp.  At the last second, the jumper would tuck and land on his or her back in the center of the tarp.  We the tarp holders would hold the tarp up at shoulder level and try to decelerate the jumpers fall by letting the tarp down to near mid-thigh level.  The ladder would slide back in the wagon and we would be off, only to throw more kids and newscasters before running after the wagon.  At the end, we were a sweaty and tired mess, looking forward to nothing more than a beer, which we stopped by the local bars on the way back to Station 1.  It was really fun being a part of this and getting to see the people I work with have so much pride and tradition.  And to drink beer with them.  I'd thought about doing a workout before the parade, but afterwards, I was really glad I hadn't.  Sunday was completely recovery, both from the parade and the bars, and mysteriously, my shoulder is feeling pretty damn good.  Yay Beer!