Syrup Flavoured

The syrup at the Parskville Shriners' club Canada Day Pancake Breakfast is syrup flavoured. Which is to say, it's not real maple syrup. No one grumbles on that account, any more than they grumble about the orange-flavoured orange drink, or for that matter, about standing in line for a half an hour to lay down six bucks on the breakfast. Or maybe it's truer to say they might grumble, a bit, but they don't complain. There is general agreement that it's a heck of a deal, for two pancakes hot off the griddle, two sausages, fried frozen potatoes and a whole lot of butter. A grey-haired guy actually spreads the butter for you, carefully, between the pancakes and everything, even if it means slowing down the line a little. And you can have as much syrup as you want.

Plus, it's for charity."Helping the burned and crippled child," the sign says. A dozen or so older gentlemen are really working hard to help that child, or maybe it's children. They had been at it for a couple of hours already, laughing and kidding each other and flipping pancakes by the score, by the time my folks and my kid and my mom's cousin and his wife and I shuffled up to get served. The fellow who plonked our pancakes onto paper plates winked and said he'd lost count after the first six, but I heard later they set a record this year: over four hundred people fed. After all, who doesn't love a pancake breakfast?

By the time we tossed our plates and cups in the garbage there were sirens sounding from up on the main drag, meaning the parade was starting. Even these days, with everything changing the way it is, there's nothing that gets people to turn out like a parade. Except maybe fireworks, but that's later. Even if the parade is sort of... parade flavoured, it is something to see. Even if the clowns are guys some people sort of recognize and the kids don't know how to talk to them. Even if there aren't so many marching bands and there seem to be a whole lot of car dealerships and local politicians. People in the parade, still wave, and throw candy, and people watching the parade, still wave back, and send their kids out into the street to scramble for the treats. And everyone wears red and white, and some wear funny hats with maple leaves on them. I wore my Canadian flag shirt. Why not? After all, who doesn't love the maple leaf?

I liked the guy on the unicycle, and the float full of old railway jiggers and a velocipede. They're trying to get the line running again up to Port Alberni, my mom said, which would be great. I looked fondly at some well-behaved ponies with kid cowgirls on them, and rocked out slightly to the Christian rock band where the one guy had a Gene Simmons wig. I laughed out loud to see the bag boys and cashiers from the Thrifty's store running formations with their shopping carts up the street. They worked hard at that, everybody said so. It really showed. True, my daughter was a little bit bored and it was really hot in the sun and there was way too much space between the floats. Big deal. After all, who doesn't love a parade?

We missed the Legion going by, which is probably just as well, because I always get emotional when I see them marching, but they do tend to give a parade some gravity. Without them it seemed slightly cartoonish, and when I saw one stern-looking old chap with his medals and uniform, walking backward against the flow for some reason, I wondered how he made sense of what he saw. Not to pick on the Shriners - they did such a great job on the breakfast - but a busload of them dressed as shieks pounding drums and honking squawky trumpets while one guy rides a golf cart modified to look like a camel puts a weird spin on Canada Day, for me.

But maybe they don't look that weird to the locals, especially the old-timers, in a place where these things are still sort of familiar. What does look weird to them, is the gang of young geeks carrying a banner reading "Jedi Legion." Ha! There's one dressed as Darth Vader, with a plastic lightsaber and everything! You can scoff, but kudos to him her, because it's got to be bloody hot in the shiny black helmet and cape. There's another one in full-on Tuskan Raider regalia, horns on his head, teeth, turban and all, plus an Obi-Wan Kenobi guy, and they're gone before I can see who the others are. People run out from the crowd to get their pictures taken with Darth Vader, and I get choked up for some odd reason, partly out of relief that the real Legionaire has disappeared by now, but partly also because the Jedi are showing signs of taking this thing seriously. And I have to admit, they make more sense to me than the "sheiks." It's an age thing.

If I find it slightly surreal, imagine how my twelve-year-old daughter feels. We talked about it, after we decided the parade was mostly done and headed off to Starbucks. (My dad said it might not be that busy, because Parksville is more of a Timmie's town). How do you add up the kids from the karate class, kicking in formation; the flatbed with the fake campfire and the guys in the marmot mascot costumes; the giant truck from the concrete-pouring company, the Mountie in red serge with an emtpy holster gabbing on his cell phone off to one side? What would you tell someone from, let's say Spain, for example, is going on here? We both just laughed. You could never explain Canada based on this! And we walked home in the sun, with a stop at the playground, and spent the rest of the day just reading and relaxing in the shade. After all, who doesn't love a day off in the summer time?

But with the benefit of a supper of salmon, new potatoes, fresh green beans and a glass of Niagara white wine, I think I know now how I would explain this to a real stranger. I'd say all this kooky stuff, all the flagwaving and floats and funny behaviour are sort of like syrup flavour. You can't always get the real thing, you know. But this stuff is sweet, and you can have as much as you want, and anyway, it's for a good cause.

Gotta run. The fireworks are about to start. There's a barge out in the bay, and they're blasting Bryan Adams from a tape player somewhere, and everyone from all over is crowded onto the beach to watch the show. After all, who doesn't love fireworks?

Happy Canada Day!