Cold night, warm feeling
Dave Lamb came home to Coeur d’Alene for Thanksgiving and for the city’s annual holiday parade Friday evening.
As his younger siblings huddled under blankets with his mom and dad, the Navy airman apprentice joked that his return flight to West Virginia, where he’s stationed, couldn’t come soon enough. It was three hours later in West Virginia, but the mercury has been hanging in the high 60s, much warmer than downtown Coeur d’Alene, where thousands gathered for the holiday lights parade.
“What do I think about this?” Lamb said. “Turn up the thermometer.”
Despite a warning of snow, none came during the parade. Cold rain drizzled, though, and the wind blew hard enough at times to turn umbrellas inside out and send road barriers skittering across the streets.
Some paradegoers were more prepared than others.
Teri and Mark Kirby, of Post Falls, pitched a canopy over a park bench at Fourth and Sherman and camped beneath it for a couple of hours, holding the spot for their children and parents who arrived later.
Having attended the parade for 10 years, the Kirbys have seen all sorts of weather. They’ve been rained on and snowed on.
“It’s fun to come to a parade in the wintertime,” Teri Kirby said. “I like it when it snows.”
Liz Bacon said the wind was harsher during Friday’s parade than any other she could recall in the past 10 years. But the Coeur d’Alene woman said the weather wasn’t what she’d call “nasty, nasty.”
Of course, having been born and raised in North Dakota, Bacon said she knows how to dress for the cold. “I usually overdress,” she said.
No matter what the weather forecast, Bacon said, she wouldn’t miss the annual parade and holiday lighting ceremony, which culminated in a fireworks show.
“I like the atmosphere,” she said, “and the excitement there is with the parade.”
As an announcer repeatedly admonished the crowd not to light their candles before the traditional singing of “Silent Night,” lighted floats, bare-legged cheerleaders and marching bands made their way down the street.
Kootenai County sheriff’s Detective Jamie Kimball rode in one of the department’s trucks, lights flashing. Kids’ bicycles, decorated with strands of holiday lights, were stuck on top and in the back of the truck.
Come Christmas Day, about 100 children in the community will receive brand-new bikes as gifts through the department’s second annual Christmas Crusade for Kids.
Working with KVNI radio, deputies have been sharing stories of kids they’ve come across as part of their daily routine – foster children, abused children and children from poor families.
Donations are being accepted through the radio station and the Sheriff’s Department to help pay for the bikes. Checks can be made out to the Kootenai County Christmas Crusade.