Memories, anticipation and civic pride

Eastport parades lights

It’s cold in Annapolis today, though pretty. The town is excited for our biggest fall event (as opposed to the big event of the year which is the Blue Angels’s practice schedule the week of the Naval Academy graduation. People line up for that for hours) which is not the Army Navy game, played in Landover this year (big football programs simply would not consider Army Marine Memorial Stadium big enough to fill with alumni from West Point and Annapolis, but the Eastport Yacht Club “Parade of Lights”.

The Parade of Lights is where owners decorate their yachts to bring them up and down Spa Creek for a couple of hours. Fierce wind prevented the event three years ago but it’s amazing what people can do with lights on a yachts. I have yet to capture any decent shots of the event over the years we have been here so I don’t have a lot to illustrate but you need trust me: these are simply spectacular displays of light, holiday sentiments, and pride.

In the end, it’s that civic pride that motivates people to stand on their cold balconies to observe the flow. A few of the yachts traipse up and down the Creek with relatively boring color or design but not many. The event draws thousands who line the Conduit Street Bridge and any location with a view.

Annapolis claims to be the World’s Sailing Capital (I suspect some small, old city in Rhodesia Island or perhaps Perth (the Australian one) would scoff at it but yachting is huge here. Only a few boats still moor at this time of year but tonight is an exception as everyone wants to show off.

Sure, the people who can afford a yacht in this town (for the record, our view of transportion on the Creek is the water taxi which stopped for this season at the end of October, sadly) have luxury in dressing up their boats. I fully understand that but at least they share their audacious actions with others. In our increasingly entitled world, I will take that, thank you.

So, the focus of Annapolis this evening will be the EASTPORT Yacht Club Parade of Lights rather than one by the much more exclusive and larger Annapolis Yacht Club. The festivities will be two hours of sharing some sense of community in an era when we seem determined to stamp that out joy or a sense of festivity across a small town because of distrust of everyone else’s motives. I am good with providing ten or four hundred thirteen four year-olds a pretty novel experience.

Actions create consequences, after all. Some of those memories will stick with kids for their lives: I hope they are excited and positive ones.

What does your town do for the holidays? Is it a ho hum event or something truly spectacular which brings folks together? I welcome your tidings of shared joy.

Thank you for reading this or any other Actions Create Consequences. I welcome any and all readers for a day or all year.

am delighted to announce that I will send a calendar of some of my photographs as a thank you to anyone who takes on a subscriber commitment to support this column for 2025.

I acknowledge I have no shots from last year’s or any other year’s Parade of Lights as every single one I have taken disappointed me. I will share a humble chilly sunrise today, however, which I hope you find relaxing.

Be well and do be warm and safe. FIN