Cultural pay dirt

Hit cultural pay dirt last night. Before dinner, headed to the city center of Alcobendas (our neighborhood of Madrid) with Seth to hunt backhoes. After watching the backhoes “go night night" (as Seth calls it) at 6, we went to do some errands (specifically, procuring patches for Nathan's pants) near the bread store -- and came upon a huge parade. Leading the parade were two men with a portable fireworks discharger (one thing we’ve learned while here: the Spanish love their fireworks). Marching were two bands (the regular city band and bagpipes) and lots of women and children dressed up in either black satin brocade or flamenco dresses. The black satin version came with accessories: a large medal draped around the neck, flowers, and gorgeous white lace draped over a tall hairpiece, with the lace rising up and then falling to their ankles. All the women and children had huge bouquets of flowers, and groups of men carried funeral-sized flower arrangements bearing ribbons that read “Alcobendas.” When the parade stalled, and it stalled frequently, a group of men started singing and two flamenco dancers appeared to entertain the crowd. The parade ended at the local church, which had been decked out with lighting and drapes along with a closed-circuit TV screen so that those of us stuck in the street could see the service.

Also in the parade were the three Montes brothers, the same ones I bargain with for bread on a daily basis. One appeared to be some sort of parade official, which required him to dress in a suit. This is not the brother I’d guess would’ve owned a suit, and in fact he spent a lot of the parade tugging at his tie as if it were strangling him. The other brothers walked in the Montes family section of the parade with spouses and their toddlers. I think I am now officially a bread store stalker.

I asked someone what was going on — turns out it's the city's Patron Saint's day, and everyone was going to deliver flowers to the statue of said saint at the local church. Fireworks tonight marked the end of this evening’s festivities. Today, the city is closed (except for the bread store, thank heavens).