[color=gold][b][u]Leo's Parade Diaries: The Golden Anniversary Parade[/u][/b][/color] ----------- Leo the Tiger speaking; you also know me as the Marching Wonder. Well, the big day finally arrived. We weren't even sure COVID-19 was going to allow us to celebrate the G-52 organization's golden anniversary, because 2020 was also supposed to be the current year for a new Summer Olympics, and the virus said no. However, thanks to the fact the city never had a single case of COVID-19 (partially from the groupthink issues we haven't conquered, and partially because the terrorists of Turn Back the Clock accidentally prevented it by initially putting up a giant glass dome over the city; the dome now over the city when we need it is made of different materials), we were able to have the big celebration after all. Though I'm mainly highlighting our large parade we had, which took the usual route from WU to Marching Greens in the park made after me, the festival was also holding carnival-style events, complete with games, prizes, and food trucks. It not only was able to smash the Guinness World Record for the largest number of participants marching in the parade, but it also had the record for the largest audience. Security had to be extra tight so that 1) we didn't spread the virus in case somebody had it, and 2) nobody would try to kill Bendraqi. (He was hiding inside his apartment. He'd record a message and upload it to YouTube, however, stating his apologies to the G-52s, and also thanking them for 50 years.) The parade was a bit confusing to some outsiders, because the day of the parade was July 4, our nation's Independence Day, and Canada Day falls on July 1. So why were we seeing both the American and Canadian flags? The G-52s had been busy with a lot of birthday celebrations of Leo the Patriotic Lion's parallels, whose birthdays always seem to fall on the national day. Because of the G-52 celebration, however, we didn't do a proper Canadian celebration with Levi the Mountee Lion; instead, we were allowing him to celebrate with Leo, so it would be two for the price of one. The parade had its huge number of bands and soldiers marching, and many of the furries went ahead and, by habit, chose to pad (go barefoot) while marching. (We had a ton of Drumbums playing as well.) But the theme of the parade wasn't entirely American patriotism in the form of military music and soldiers in drills. It also had a farm theme to it. It threw Chuong Cho Soi, the UN1024 leader, for a loop, but for him, it didn't matter; it was his first trip to America since the virus panicked everybody. "So why do we have a farm theme going here?" he asked. "In American history," Zax Arctic, the famous Army Ranger, replied, "they were the first leaders. Politicians, business people, essential workers, community leaders, everything. We want to continue on that legacy today by having a farm-themed July 4th. When COVID-19 plagued this country, these farmers continued working and when companies and businesses can't buy their goods like they used to, they go out to help their communities directly. The American farmer is the one who established the basics and foundation of American society. No country has revolutionized modern agriculture more than we did. We helped the world modernize their agriculture so every country can feed their own people. America wouldn't be where they are at today without these farmers and we want to thank them for their services today for what they did this year to keep us fed for work." Some of the floats indeed had a farm theme to it, but the ones that didn't were meant to feature important icons revelant to the G-52s and their allies. For instance, Lennart the Viking Lion rode on a Viking-themed long, and the bands escorting him were playing the appropriate music, while Lennie the Bucanneer Lion rode on a pirate-themed float, with the bands playing music from the "Pirates of the Carribean" franchise (most notably "He's a Pirate"). Both lions waved their national flags to show the symbolism of the G-52s being a global organization. Some parallels play instruments, however, or have roles as drum majors, so in the case of Leo himself, he was there with the Lion of Liberty leading the U.S. Lion Corps Band, which immediately followed the main attraction of the parade: the G-52 Marching Band, and the G-52 Drum and Bugle Corps. There were actually several units making up the whole outfit, and so they were divided accordingly, using both traditional rope-tensioned drums (which we like to call "soldier's drums"), and modern marching percussion (which Corps Coon likes to call "football drums"). The lions also had specific musicians acting as escorts, so Zachary Chandler took up the end of the group, because he was playing his rope-tensioned snare drum to announce Leo. Levi had a float dedicated to himself, but he was playing his bugle alongside the bands escorting him. As for some the other parallels, Leng the Bokator Lion and his students played their oriental drums they liked to play while on their float. Leonhard the Mighty Lion had a larger-than-normal bass drum he liked to bang on, and so he did here, with a friend of ours named Magnus playing a snare drum to announce him, and Drumbums representing Iceland played with him. Leonidas the Hellenic Lion rode on a float so he play timpani. I can't remember what Lyaksandro the Coassack Lion was playing if he played an instrument, but he did have Nikita announcing him with a snare drum, and he rode a horse, since, as he put it, "A Cossack isn't complete with a horse." Liam the Celtic Lion had a harp to play, and so he did on his float. The list went on and on. The many canon characters who played musical instruments on the march seemed to be spread out. My friends Blue and Pink were playing as dragons with the Warfang Pride Band, but they were towards the end of the parade. The SWAT Kats, with the other members of "Konway's Korps," had the honor of being the very first marchers to be seen, and Chance and Jake symbolized this by the endless amount of measures of the "Four Flams" drum cadence they were performing before the parade started. As always, Chance had a bass drum, and Jake had a snare drum. Some others, such as Puggsy (Tom and Jerry's dog friend that used to be homeless), and also Bowser Koopa, played their drums as one-man bands, mainly to act as "transitions" from one act to the next. In the case of Tom and Jerry themselves, Jerry just rode on Tom's shoulder playing the flute. Tom, however, wasn't drumming; he was leading a band of cats that shared the same setup as he did. I came about right in the middle, because I had my three bands I lead marching: my military-style band, my showoffs (think college football halftime show), and a pipe and drum band, although the pipes were playing the same tunes as my showoffs. Behind me were my beloved king, King Leo V, and the Royal Ensemble of lions he leads as drum major. Other regal ensembles followed after that, honoring King Lionel of Leonine, King Lacklund of 1776, and King Ross of Ratatat. Bringing up the rear of the whole parade was Dark Wolf and the bands and soldiers he led, but the fact he was last was luck of the draw, really. I think the entire ordeal took two hours at the least, just like our annual Foot Parade done to honor William Gurdetha usually does because there are so many animals involved. It also didn't help the summer heat was a concern, and nobody wanted to have heatsroke wearing those uniforms we wore. Cripto protected everybody with his powers, however, and since he wasn't in the parade himself, he would have an easier time focusing on this. When we finally arrived at Marching Greens, Doughty Dog and a few other G-52s volunteered to pass out water bottles to the marchers, and they gladly but carefully drank them. Then we had a big ceremony, filled with pomp and circumstance, where several G-52s, beginning with Super C, gave several prepared remarks on the G-52 organization, its history, and its mission for the future. I don't have the time to go into details about it, but each speech smoothly transitioned to the next, and concluded with the emphasis that we were also honoring the birthdays of Leo and Levi; this is why all musicians present, which later broke the Guinness World Record for biggest number of people to perform a national anthem, began with "O Canada," and then played the "Star-Spangled Banner." Flags were raised during each anthem, and "The Star-Spangled Banner" concluded with a military fly-over from the famous Thunderbirds; red, white, and blue confetti also fell from the sky. The public then sang "Happy Birthday" to Leo and Levi. It was a long day, but it was worth it. The festivies would continue with some daily band and orchestral concerts in the daytime, although some G-52s took our UN1024 friends and some new friends we made as well (mainly those trying to get away from the GSAF). At night, jazz performers and rock bands such as Furry Fury would perform, but one big highlight from the nighttime shows was the fact the featured human performers were all acts associated with Scott Bradlee's Postmodern Jukebox (or PMJ for short). People marveled at the diversity these folks in both the singers and the genres that they worked with, and in some cases, they combined themselves with other performers for special collaborations (recorded live for a special charity album). This is why those who liked the jazz portions would tell you their favorite moment was seeing the astoudingly talented Gunhild Carling, Sweden's Queen of Swing, playing 12 different instruments; she frequently showcases all her skills in one song, singing or casually breaking into a tap dance in between, and her specialty is playing three trumpets at the same time! (When Lennart went to introduce herself, he made sure he said to everybody, "Don't try this at home!") As for the rock music, everybody (naturally) went for Furry Fury, the biggest rock band in the world, and Cripto had a lot of pressure on his shoulders being the biggest celebrity in the world. Since some folks associated with PMJ also played alongside other performers for this special charity album, one part had Ms. Carling playing alongside the Drumbums, while another saw Leo (since he does record jazz albums from time to time) do his first collaboration with PMJ. While PMJ usually takes modern music and made it retro, the song they did with Leo was already retro, coming from the period of music known as "The Great American Songbook." These concerts were held outside the G-52 Diner; it meant that while everybody ended up eating dinner relatively late, it allowed our special guests (Postmodern Jukebox) a taste of the diner, and Gourmet Gopher was more than happy to work his magic for them. By the end of the day, we were all tired, and we spent the next day just resting to recover. We just kept ourselves in the superhero state of mind, because you never know when evil will strike next; we're amazed that it didn't do so here. Still, it was nice to have some time off from that. Thanks, and join me now as you raise your imaginary glass with me, toasting 50 years of the G-52s fighting against the forces of evil, even though we don't always win. Congratulations, we say, and here's to the next 50! -------------- [color=gold][b]THE END[/b][/color]