• The Flag Day parade in Appleton, Wisconsin, which a resident told me is the biggest Flag Day parade in the country.
    • The older people and families lining up early—with folding chairs—to watch.
    • The marching band marshal spritzing her high-school-aged musicians with cooling water.
    • Accepting a miniature American flag from a volunteer, carrying it a safe distance down the street, and then offering it to an older man, who interpreted it as a gift, whereas it was mostly a gift to me that he agreed to take it.
    • The U.S. Army missile truck, wowing spectators by lifting the missile on its hydraulic lift bed.