This morning (30 June), I drove to downtown St. Louis for the annual PrideFest Parade. After parking in the garage west of Busch Stadium, I walked up to Citygarden to meet up with my fellow Enterprise Mobility colleagues around 10:30 a.m.
We must have had at least 60 employees taking part today, mostly from corporate headquarters. I was one of eight who were to wear a colorful garland of narrow balloons during the parade. I needed a bit of help to get the balloons on me, but I soon got used to them.
The parade was to have started at Noon; however, several protesters delayed the parade's start by about 90 minutes. These people blocked the parade route on Market Street to protest PrideFest accepting sponsorship from Boeing, which the protesters said was helping Israel kill Palestinians in the current Gaza conflict. After the protesters were finally arrested, the parade stepped off. It was tough waiting in the heat for the parade to begin, and a couple of the balloons on my garland popped, but it was great when we finally began marching west on Market.
There was a great crowd along the route and my job--along with the others wearing balloons--was to excite the crowd. We did so by blowing whistles we were issued beforehand, and by walking along the crowds lining Market. I did my part by glad handing people along the route. We were warmly received by the spectators and that was most gratifying.
Besides the employees, Enterprise Mobility had a convertible loaned from Enterprise Rent-A-Car and two trucks--one box, the other stake bed--borrowed from Enterprise Truck Rental. The marchers were ahead of the vehicles during the parade, which went down Market from 10th Street to 16th Street.
We stepped off around 2:00 p.m. and ended the parade about 30 minutes later. After returning the balloon garlands to the box truck, we walked back east through the green spaces immediately north of Market. I stayed around 16th and Market to see the rest of the parade reach this place. I hoped to see Julie march with local Unitarian congregations, but I didn't see her. She texted me to say she was not feeling well and staying home.
I walked east along Market and south to the garage to get back in my car. The Cardinals game had just ended at Busch Stadium (they defeated the Cincinati Reds 2-0), so it took quite a few minutes before I could leave the garage to head home. Traffic was backed up on the street just west of the stadium, but after some minutes I was able to get on Interstate 55 to head south. After stopping by a Wendy's in Mehlville to get dinner, then shopped for groceries at Walmart before finally coming home. I was tired, but most happy to have taken part today and doing my best to show the LGBTQ+ community that this straight male respected them.
Later.
Websites of Entities Mentioned in this Post:
PrideFest St. Louis: Pride St. Louis (pridestl.org)
Enterprise Mobility: Introducing Enterprise Mobility
Citygarden: Citygarden | City of St. Louis Parks (stlouis-mo.gov)
Busch Stadium: Busch Stadium: Home of the Cardinals | St. Louis Cardinals (mlb.com)
Wendy's: Wendy's® | Home of Fresh, Never Frozen Beef Since 1969 (wendys.com)
Walmart: Walmart | Save Money. Live better.
