Short Stories

A Watch and Follow Parade

by Thomas Kirkpatrick
03/30/18
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Spring is now unfolding here in Ballengee and the renewing of nature is lifting to the spirit.  The buds upon the trees are bursting into light green leaves.  Dandelions are now roaring across the lawns of fresh green grass.  The flower beds are a rainbow of color, as the flowers dance in the springtime breeze here in the Appalachian Mountains of the “Almost Heaven.”  The newness of color returning the landscape of former brown and gray is that of a new cleanness and purity.  Holding all the innocence and boldness of youth born into a world which hungers for rebirth.  Yes, this perhaps is my favorite time of the year.  As nature is at her best and all of God’s handiwork is a beauty.

 It is Easter time and the folks of Ballengee work hard each year to have a dazzling Easter Parade.  I admit that it is not as spectacular as the one down Fifth Avenue in the big city but for us, it holds its own special meaning.  As in most small towns across America, the folks of Ballengee are but an important extension of that American family.  Most here know most here, as we like to say, and so the Easter Parade is more than a city event but a family event.  The efforts put into the Easter Parade are meaningful, as we know the craftsman as well as the craft.  Like the Christmas season and all its declarations, there is a certain competitiveness in the work.  Each church has a float depicting a religious theme of the Easter season. Saint Joseph’s Catholic has a High Priest standing over his flock of perishers offering a blessing to them. The First Methodist Church follows with its member waving Palm branches towards the crowd along the street. James Street Presbyterian, then comes along with their choir singing Hallelujah, Grace Baptist Church has a figure of Jesus sitting on a donkey with His Disciples attending Him, and the Church of the Knoll follows behind with the stone sealed tomb of Joseph of Arimathea. For the secular of Ballengee, there is a float with the Easter Bunny throwing out candy to the children. 

 The most inspiring floats are those built by the farming community.  I like the touch of floats pulled by mule rather than gas-powered vehicles, although the farm tractor is an interesting creature in itself.  We are treated to the Ballengee High school band and the firehouse band.  Several choirs from the churches perform some of the best vocal music to be heard in the valley.  There are also contributions from neighboring communities as well.  But I have always felt there is still nothing better than homegrown.

 Our Easter Parade is led by the Grand Marshall who usually is the Mayor. Bobby Ballengee the reigning Mayor at the time. Bobby is the great-great-grandson of Robert Ballengee the founder.   The start of the Easter Parade begins with the wailing sirens of the police car and fire engine at the head of the procession.  The Grand Marshall will ride on top of the fire engine smiling and waving to us his loyal subjects.  Politicians are always running for the next term.  Some Easter Parades you stand and watch and others you travel with.  I suppose this depends upon the size but in Ballengee, we do both.  We stand as the Easter Parade passes and then fall in behind and become a part of it.  The Easter Parade slowly moves down Arrington Street on past Maxwell to Logan's Park.  There it ends and the children have an Easter egg hunt followed by a devotional that each church participates in.  It is a moving end to this moving event on our calendar.

 Bobby Ballengee is quite an elderly fellow now but a tremendous inspiration to us all.  This is the second time he has been the Grand Marshall of the Easter Parade.  The first time was a couple decades ago long before Bobby ever thought about politics.  Though I am not sure he ever did think about politics.  Come to think of it he never did run for Mayor we just appointed him.  Bobby Ballengee’s previous Grand Marshall Privilege in 76 had a moving story and motivation behind it.  A story that began back in 70 off in a faraway distant land that most of us only heard of and never understood.  Seeing Mayor Bobby Ballengee as the Grand Marshall brings back those moments of long ago to my mind as fresh as the new colors all about us here in Ballengee.

 A story that I know as I was there in that distant land of Viet Nam and Bobby Ballengee’s son Olin was my friend at that time. We had grown up together and besides Johnny Crawford; Olin was about as close a friend as one could have.  Olin and I joined the army together on the buddy plan and went through boot together.  We parted after boot but landed together two months later in South Viet Nam and met at the landing strip in Cam Ranh Bay.  From there Olin and I went separate paths.  Olin was infantry and I was a truck driver.  I was assigned to a light equipment engineer company and sent north to Bon Son.

 We met up later in the tenth month of our tour.  I was stationed in the town of Plaque where we were building a hard surface road.  Olin was stationed about twenty miles away at a firebase named Weight Davis.  He was in the recon platoon there and kept an eye on the neighborhood.  At Weight Davis, there also was a rock quarry and we would convoy out in our dump trucks and pick up rocks.  While there waiting for my load and the convoy to form for the journey back Olin and I would visit.  As time passed Olin kept mentioning how the neighborhood there was getting crowded.  It made sense to me.  The V. C. didn't need a firebase out there in the country and certainly one that had a rock quarry too.  The army moves by air and road and that rock quarry was building airstrips and roads.

 I knew things were getting hot out there when security for our convoys was beefed up.  We no longer traveled just in a group but were accompanied by gun trucks. One morning we assembled to start our convoy but it was called off and we were relieved from the day's duty.  The news came down that Weight Davis was overrun and only a few had managed to get out.  Olin was listed as Missing in Action and presumed dead.  Weight Davis was completely destroyed and never was reclaimed by our forces.

 Not long after I returned home here to Ballengee, Bobby Ballengee came to visit.  Bobby wanted to confirm that no one had seen Olin die or that a body was not recovered.  I was very uncomfortable in our conversation, as I could not give Bobby any real good news.  I was there but not when the base was overrun.  I had seen Olin most every day but not on that last day. I could only tell Bobby of the times we shared there at Weight Davis.  By the end of our conversation, I was amazed at the hope that Bobby had.  His hope and belief were that Olin was not dead and that someday he would return home.

 Bobby Ballengee committed himself to get the whole of the U. S. Military in Southeast Asia to scour the county and find his son Olin.  He went on petition drives, hounded Senators, wrote numerous letters to the President and spoke at all the political functions he could.  He never once gave this mission up nor did he ever tire of it.  Finding his son Olin became his passion and reason for all that he did.  Many would come to Bobby and say he should accept the reality that Olin had given his life in the defense of his countrymen.  Many would say to Bobby that this campaign of his would be his death.  Even I knew that this was not completely true.  I believed Olin to be lost but that Bobby’s campaign was the cause of his life.  Bobby never gave an inch and each discouraging word, each challenge, and each defeat only strengthened his Hope that someday he would again see Olin.

 The conflict with Viet Nam ended for the United States. Not long after that it became known that Olin was not MIA but a Prisoner of War.  Soon he would be released and would return home.  In late March of 76, Olin returned to Ballengee and the town gave him a Hero’s Welcome.  On the Saturday following Good Friday Bobby and his son Olin rode on top of the fire engine as the Grand Marshals of the Easter Parade.  It was, as I shall never forget the grandest of all Easter Parades in Ballengee.

 Parades have a way of capturing the emotions of those who watch them.  Even a bad Parade can cause a tear to flow when the band passes by.  The raising of our nations flag jerks at the works of my emotions. 

I wonder what the participants of that Easter Parade in Jerusalem felt on that first Good Friday.  I’m sure most were caught up in the excitement, curiosity of the event, some filled with skepticism, others feeling that justice was being served, some relieved that a threat was passing.  I am sure that many there were in great fear and distress.  Some who held a great belief in the Grand Marshall of that Easter Parade were having that belief tested.  They that believe their King, Jesus, who would rule in great power, was now being put to death.  Jesus the Son of God, submitted and powerless in His final moments of life.  They, who traveled with, spoke with and for, professed Him to be who He was, would they also follow in His fate?  Would the Jews seek them out and destroy them also?  What of their belief’s now?  Would their passion also be put to an end?  I imagine that some of them were tested to the extreme of their being.  This Easter Parade too was a watch and follow.  Its path ended at Calvary where creation put the Creator to death.  What sorrow and distress many must have felt as the jubilant crowds mocked, spat and crucified their Lord and Master.

 I thought about that Easter Parade of years ago when Jesus was the Grand Marshall.  I learned something or should I better say I realized a truth.  That Hope and Faith are born in the greatest hour of distress.  That in our greatest sorrow, we can find our greatest joy.  That when we truly desire that which we cannot see our Faith empowers us to act. 

 Bobby never once gave up his hope that Olin would return.  Each time that hope was challenged his hope was strengthened and his faith grew stronger. If Bobby had not Hope and acted upon Faith Olin would have come home to find his tombstone. Our Hope is in the resurrection of God’s Son Jesus and His return soon to come.  If our Father in Heaven had not raised His Son from the dead then when we return home we too would find our tomb.  We have not seen Him yet we know the truth and therefore have Faith.  Into every lifetime sorrow and distress shall come.  In these times we have the opportunity to strengthen our faith and renew our hope.  Our Faith empowers our Hope that someday we shall too be in a great Easter Parade.  That resurrected Easter Parade in the clouds with our Risen Lord and Master Jesus the Christ.  It too, will be a watch and follow Easter Parade too.

 Thomas N Kirkpatrick

Ballengee, March 16, 2018