The Parade

When I met Rick Broussard, he opened a whole new world to me. Camping being one of those worlds. Mountain View, Arkansas was our favorite choice of camping experiences. We would often camp out on his secluded property and then drive into Mountain View for an evening of local culture which usually consisted of clogging, fiddling and storytellin.

On one of our trips to the Mountain View Folk Life Festival, we decided to venture downtown and lineup with the other locals for the big downtown parade. These parades were different than anything I had ever seen. The creativity was spectacular. Without the benefit of fancy decorations, the local children would create floats that depicted their pioneer history. Many of the floats were made out of materials they would have in their backyards. One was an old school house themed float. They had constructed out of real wood, a mini school house with a school bell in the tower. Kids were seated in old timey school desks and decked out in old timey clothes. The school teacher was at the front of the class with a blackboard behind her giving out instructions to the kids. Another child was seated on a high stool beside the blackboard wearing a ‘dunce’ hat. It was the cutest thing I had ever seen. I marveled at all the floats and the work and creativity that had gone into each one.

While I was admiring their handy work, I noticed an antique car coming towards us. Whomever was in the car was obviously popular with the locals. They started cheering and applauding. He was seated high on the back seat of an old convertible. There was a sign attached to his car. I couldn’t see it at first. I was curious about this guy because he possessed a certain charisma. You could tell that this was someone of great importance. He was handsome and seemed pretty popular with the locals. The streets of Mountain View are pretty small and narrow. People were lining the street and we were lucky to have a front row seat. As his car got closer and I could read the sign on the side of the car. It read “Bill Clinton for Governor.” I watched him drive by smiling and waving at everyone. I gave him a big wave. We had heard from the locals that this guy was a great governor and might run for president one day.

Well, we know how that played out. I have always been an admirer of President Bill Clinton even when it wasn’t popular. And maybe it was because of that earlier encounter. I don’t know and it doesn’t matter. I thought he was unfairly treated and unfairly judged. We didn’t put past presidents or even current congressmen under the same scrutiny as we did Clinton. I thought he was a great president.