One of the things we like to do is check out local events, especially around the holidays. Sometimes, it’s really fun, and sometimes it’s really weird, and sometimes I just end up shaking my head. As I often do here, lol. This year, we opted not to attend the Summerville Christmas Parade (for reasons to be discussed after the event we DID attend), but decided to give the Charleston Holiday Parade of Boats a try. You guys, lol. I’ve attended plenty of lame events, but this one is definitely up near the top of the list.

It was advertised as having more than 30 boats, all fully decorated, and it was supposed to start between 5:00 and 5:30 pm, depending on which website was referenced, on the Mt. Pleasant side. So we headed out to Patriots Point, paid $5 to park in the parking lot with a clear view of the water. It didn’t start at 5 pm. Not at 5:30 pm, either. It was actually almost 6:30 pm when we saw the first boat. Remember, there were supposed to be over 30 boats. There MIGHT have been 15. Maybe. I think there were more security boats than actual decorated participants. Good thing I decided early on that I wasn’t paying $30 a person for the viewing party. We only wasted $5 and 2 hours of our time, lol.

Now, on to the Summerville Christmas Parade and the reason we did not attend. We went last year, and we were startled to find out that the Confederate Flag was part of the parade. I don’t protest many things, but for the life of me, I don’t understand what the Confederate Flag has to do with Christmas. So when I discovered that this year, two groups known for deliberately using the flag to taunt people (the Secessionist Party and the Carolina Flaggers) were going to be allowed to march in the parade WITH the Confederate Flag, I knew I had found my line that shouldn’t be crossed. Especially after the appearance of the flag at the Flowertown Festival earlier in the year.

So we didn’t attend the parade yesterday. And I was rather pleased to find out that at least one of the groups was kicked out of the parade for non-compliance with the agreement.