Last Sunday morning (30 June), I made my way to the Downtown West branch of Enterprise Rent-A-Car (
https://www.enterprise.com/en/home.html). I was there to help prepare some vehicles for that day's PrideFest Parade (
https://www.pridestl.org/) through downtown St. Louis. We had a stake bed truck from Enterprise Truck Rental (
https://www.enterprisetrucks.com/truckrental/en_US.html#_ga=2.97405727.1020205400.1530151678-1638779697.1529286224) and three convertible cars from Enterprise Car Sales (
https://www.enterprisecarsales.com/) for the parade. The truck also brought in supplies, such as water for the marchers and candy to give out to parade watchers.
After affixing Enterprise signs to the cars and truck, we drove the vehicles to the staging area on Market Street, immediately south of Kiener Plaza. I drove a Volkswagen Beetle convertible to the site. There, more decorations--including a paper garland in rainbow colors, rainbow flags, and balloons--were mounted on the vehicles.
We waited by the vehicles, which were parked beside the Hilton St. Louis at the Ballpark Hotel (
https://www3.hilton.com/en/hotels/missouri/hilton-st-louis-at-the-ballpark-STLBVHF/index.html). More Enterprise employees--mostly from corporate headquarters, but also from rental branches and other operations--arrived in their company t-shirts to march in the parade. Mostly, we waited in the shade, as it was very hot that day. The temperature hit around 100 degrees F (38 degrees C). The drinking water we brought along was a great help. While waiting, my former Enterprise colleague Liz Laskowitz came by to say hello. She was with colleagues from Aon (
https://www.aon.com/home/index.html), her current employer, who had assembled near us. We posed for a group picture before the parade began.
The parade began at Noon, but we were near the end of the parade, and did not step off until around 1:20 pm. I got behind the wheel of the Beetle--gingerly, due to the heated seat--and slowly drove off to join in the parade going west on Market. The truck lead off, followed by the walkers, then the Beetle, and then the two other convertibles.
We slowly made our way west, and we received much cheers from the crowd lined along Market. I sometimes took off my hat to wave it to the crowd on both sides of the street. Also, I sometimes gave three toots of the horn, sometimes followed by someone in the crowd saying "Let's go Blues!" (It was just over two weeks before this that the Blues had their Stanley Cup Championship parade, going east on Market.)
Our group passed the reviewing stand across from Soldiers Memorial and greatly appreciated the announcer's shout out. This was the first time I ever drove a vehicle in a parade, and thoroughly enjoyed this moment.
We reached the end of the parade route at 18th and Market, and the vehicles continued west back to the Downtown West Branch. There, we removed the decorations and trash from the vehicles and secured them to be reclaimed by their respective owners the next day. Despite the great heat that day, I felt so happy to help my employer do its part in celebrating the Lesbian, Gay Bisexual, Transgendered, and Queer (LGBTQ) community. This is personal for me, as I know a friend from high school and another from college, plus the brother of another friend, all of them in the LGBTQ community.
Later.
