{"id":114,"date":"2014-07-05T09:36:58","date_gmt":"2014-07-05T13:36:58","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/?p=114"},"modified":"2017-11-26T21:44:30","modified_gmt":"2017-11-27T02:44:30","slug":"saddest-parade-on-earth-gloucester","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/2014\/07\/05\/saddest-parade-on-earth-gloucester\/","title":{"rendered":"Saddest Parade on Earth bums out Gloucester"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy are you sad?\u201d a woman in the crowd asked near the beginning of the Saddest Parade on Earth. About 16 of us had joined in the Fourth of July Horribles Parade in Gloucester on the evening of July 3. I replied that a place I\u2019d worked had gone out of business, also a death in the family. \u201cWould you like a hug?\u201d she offered.<\/p>\n

The Saddest Parade on Earth grew out burnout and sadness I\u2019ve been struggling with since the economy crashed around the same time my first son was born. Like many other Americans, I\u2019ve found it to be a time of high anxiety. I\u2019ve been working three or four regular jobs to make ends meet. And one of those jobs\u2014the Boston Phoenix, which I loved\u2014went out of business. During these years, a sister-in-law died from breast cancer after refusing to get treated until it was too late because mental illness scared her of doctors. Part of my family fought over how to help a relative who\u2019d lost his job because of alcoholism. Another member of the extended family, who was living in my two-family house, tried to kill herself last summer. Of course, I\u2019m actually a pretty fortunate guy. Plenty of people\u2014including folks in my extended family\u2014have it worse in our time of wars and economic depression.<\/p>\n

At any rate, the bad feelings started seeping into my drawings. They became a funny, cute forest of raining\/crying trees. And when I hit on the idea of The Saddest Parade on Earth it was like finding destiny. It was a way to publicly talk about how so many of us are struggling with sadness. And to mock it, tease it, as a way to maybe exorcise a bit of it.<\/p>\n

\"Jo-Ann<\/a>
Jo-Ann Castano (left), Evan and KT Toomey march up Railroad Avenue. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

When I organized the first Saddest Parade on Earth in Beverly, Massachusetts, in March<\/a>, having friends and strangers join me in that procession was very heartening. And the whole thing is intentionally funny\u2014it cracks me up. I\u2019ve made some changes in my life since then. So I\u2019m feeling somewhat better.\u00a0 And doing it again brings a smile to my face.<\/p>\n

And it continues to warm my heart\u2014to be healing\u2014to have friends join me in these shenanigans. A big thank you here to the folks who participated Thursday evening: Kari Percival, Jessica Finch, KT Toomey, James Cook, Jane Cunningham, Jo-Ann Castano, Susan Erony, Laurel Kirtz, Sam, Abby, Evan, Jasper, Ulysses, Rochelle, Nick and Katie.<\/span><\/p>\n

\"Abby<\/a>
Abby rides her scooter in the Saddest Parade on Earth as it turns from Centennial Avenue onto the Boulevard. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jessica<\/a>
Jessica Finch offers tissues to sad members of the crowd on Prospect Street. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In Gloucester, the Saddest Parade was a bit different because it was part of the larger city Horribles Parade. Jessica offered tissues to people in the crowd that lined the streets of the long, long route. “Why are you sad?” people would shout. I’d say crappy economy, place I worked closed, death in the family. Laurel told people that her house had been foreclosed on and she lost her job. And this, of course, weirded people out.<\/p>\n

Some folks got it and joked, \u201cOh, yeah, but besides that.\u201d Some people shouted, \u201cFocus on the good. Be happy.\u201d They seemed offended by us inserting sadness into the parade.<\/p>\n

Many people took it as a critique of the whole parade\u2014which wasn’t my intent\u2014but was a reasonable (mis)reading of the \u201cSaddest Parade on Earth\u201d sign. “It’s a great parade!” they\u2019d shout.<\/p>\n

In certain stretches, the crowd got grim. It felt like our message of sadness was perhaps too close to home. Peopled looked unhappy, maybe threatening even. Of course, everyone had also enjoyed more beverages by that point.<\/p>\n

But throughout the parade, there were also people who cheered and gave thumbs up, folks who agreed that, yeah, it\u2019s been hard. And there were people who offered hugs.<\/p>\n

\"Jo-Ann<\/a>
Jo-Ann Castano and Susan Erony parade sadness along Centennial Avenue. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Sam,<\/a>
Sam, with his custom sad scooter, leads the sad group as it turns onto the Boulevard. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"A<\/a>
A storm cloud threatens the Saddest Parade on Earth before it even began. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jane<\/a>
Jane Cunningham and James Cook. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"Jo-Ann<\/a>
Jo-Ann Castano cheers up Ulysses. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n
\"The<\/a>
The Saddest Parade depresses the crowd on Gloucester’s Boulevard. (Greg Cook)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cWhy are you sad?\u201d a woman in the crowd asked near the beginning of the Saddest Parade on Earth. About 16 of us had joined in the Fourth of July Horribles Parade in Gloucester on the evening of July 3. I replied that a place I\u2019d worked had gone out of business, also a death […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":120,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[108,102,119,1,103],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=114"}],"version-history":[{"count":17,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1549,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/114\/revisions\/1549"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/120"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=114"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=114"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gregcookland.com\/wonderland\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=114"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}