Just Add People

 Venice, Florida has a parade on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. Local businesses and associations build floats and decorate vehicles with non-tropical imagery such as snowmen, penguins and snowflakes. Parade-watchers are allowed to set up their chairs ahead of time. The three or four blocks running through the center of downtown Venice are the most popular area for viewing the parade. Before Thanksgiving, chairs begin to appear on both sides of the street. A couple hours before the parade was due to start, I lingered at this corner and wondered if there would be any disputes over the possession of a particular red or blue chair in this stretch of predominantly red and blue chairs.