Daddy wouldn't buy me a pow-wow

Welcome, spiritual reader, as I take you on a journey through time and space - well, to Stanford actually - to enjoy some recent whacky events: the Stanford Pow Wow, and the Palo Alto May Fete Parade.

First, the Pow Wow. I'll happily admit I don't have much of a clue what's going on here. It seems like a bunch of folks getting together to celebrate their heritage and sell some stuff on stalls, and it all seems very friendly, but why it's happening in Stanford I have no idea. Anyway, there's a load of stalls selling a bit of jewellery, some beads and some clothing, and there's an arena where a lot of dancing goes on. In fact, the dance contest seems to be the centrepiece of the whole thing, with clearly a lot of effort going into the stuff folks are wearing.

Although as I couldn't help but notice, Slash seems to have let himself go a bit:

The performance highlight was undoubtedly the hoop dance, which is kinda what it says on the tin - a dancer going at it with some hoops, quite acrobatically I would add. Our arena announcer said, "It's not as easy as it looks!", but frankly, dear reader, it didn't look easy at all.

Food trucks are a fixture of any outdoor event here in the US, and unlike the UK where a burger van is seen as a surprisingly effective transport to hospital, here they garner plenty of excitement. We enjoyed our buffalo burgers and frybread, although maybe just the once.

Today was the annual Palo Alto May Fete, which, like the Pow Wow, has been cancelled for the last couple of years due to the pandemic. We were regaled with the typical Palo Alto staples - school marching bands, and people on electric skateboards - as well as some vintage cars.

The Americans love a parade, in that wonderful, un-ironic way that everything here is approached. We headed off to Heritage Park to see the end of the parade, and this time steered clear of the food trucks.

And once again we heard something you'd never hear in the UK - a school band having a go at Gary Glitter's "Rock n Roll pt 2". American readers, this is due to Comrade Glitter's non-musical activities rather than a matter of taste, but our morning closed with a healthy debate on whether you could separate the art from the artist, as apparently Whoopi suggested on The View the other day that we should do. Wise words, Whoopi, wise words.