“We can just walk across town from Fourteenth Street.”
“With you I always end up walking. Hey, what about those extra tokens?”
“Aw, it’s only a few blocks. Let’s walk.”
Ben grunts, and he goes along with me. As we get near Union Square, there seem to be an awful lot of people around. In fact they’re jamming the sidewalk and we can hardly move. Ben frowns at them and says, “Hey, what goes?”
I ask a man, and he says, “Where you been, sonny? Don’tcha know there’s a parade for General Sparks?”
I remember reading about it now, so I poke Ben. “Hey, push along! We can see Sparks go by!”
“Quit pushing and don’t try to be funny.”
“Stupid, he’s a general. Test pilot, war hero, and stuff. Come on, push.”
“quit pushing! I got to watch out for these lizards!”
So I go first and edge us through the crowd to the middle of the block, where there aren’t so many people and we can get up next to the police barrier. Cops on horseback are going back and forth, keeping the street clear. No sign of any parade coming yet, but people are throwing rolls of paper tape and handfuls of confetti out of upper-story windows. The wind catches the paper tape and carries it up and around in all kinds of fantastic snakes. Little kids keep scuttling under the barrier to grab handfuls of ticker tape that blow to the ground. Ben keeps one eye on the street and one on Redskin and Brownie.