Saturday, October 29, 2011

OWS-OccupyTogether.Org Comes To Gibbel Park In Hemet, CA

I was up early this morning and on my way to the coffee shop (as is my custom six days a week) when I heard about it on the radio news.  The "Occupy Wall Street" movement has come to Southern California.


After leaving my good old boys caffeine club, I started across town to my church to join others for our weekly yard and facility cleanup duty in preparation for Sunday morning.  That's when I spotted it happening right here in my little retirement community.  Right there at the intersection in front of Gibbel Park at 7:10 on Saturday morning, this guy was stringing up (oh, excuse me - am I allowed to say, "stringing up?") --- this guy was hanging (oops, sorry) attaching this banner on the fence.  I was in a hurry to do something meaningful and productive so I really couldn't hang (drat) stick around to see what would happen.

We finished our work at church around 10:00 A.M. so I drove by again just to see how the event was shaping up.  There was nobody there.  The banner was still on the fence and now there was an additional, smaller picket sign attached on the fence close by but no "occupiers."   There were two people sitting in the picnic area across the park.  I wondered if that was it. 

I drove around the block to see if there was any other evidence of the big event.  A few minutes later  a middle-aged man and woman showed up on the corner with about ten more signs and pickets.  I stopped across the street in the parking lot of Applebees for about ten minutes to observe them and take some photos.   They began placing their signs against the fence.  A couple different drivers of passing automobiles honked at them.  Other than that, there wasn't much commotion.  I left around 10:30 to get to my grandsons' soccer game.

After the soccer game I drove back to the park again around 12:20.  They must have gone to lunch or something; there was nobody there.  There was a small group of 20-25 people at the picnic area with balloons but it didn't look like they were intending to OCCUPY the park.  I think it was a birthday part.  They looked too clean and washed (is that called profiling?) and most of them looked like they had jobs.


I guess that was all there was to it.
Was it Awesome?  No!
Spectacular?  Not even!
Eventful?  It was the great, Great, GREAT OCCUPYTOGETHER.ORG NON-EVENT!  Two worn-out old hippies with pickets does not a demonstration make.  But I guess their banner was self-explanatory, "Occupy TOGETHER" as in, "It's just you and me babe, we're in this thing together."

In typical, OWS style, they left their trashy signs littered along the way for someone else to pick up after them.

There hasn't been this much excitement in Hemet, since our local Christmas Parade last year.


3 comments:

Daisy said...

The lefty lunacy tag is cracking me up. Nobody wants to come Occupy Bakersfield. I don't get it. LOL. The last bastion of conservative politics in the state would probably kick them out on their keisters. I almost wish they'd try it.

I wondered if the snow would drive away the Occupy NYC crowd.

hymns that preach said...

I get it, Daisy. I've been to Bakersfield. I don't think you need to worry.

Pumice said...

You should have called it in to the local TV news. I bet they could have got some camera angles that would have made it look like the citizens were up in arms. I have the feeling that is what is happening at the others.

Grace and peace.