Blogging Broker

[While reading this you cant click the thumbnails to see a larger picture.]

Last Saturday Fresno’s Chinese community celebrated the Year of the Rat. Bye bye year of the boar. Well for those of you who dont know, Fresno happens to have their own little CHINATOWN. It isn’t much to speak of, and its pretty run down, but hey, its OUR Chinatown.

Oddly, I didnt see all that many Chinese people at the parade. There were some, the dancers and muscians who after the parade went around from business to business to perform the annual exorcism of evil spirits, but apart from them, I didnt really see many others. There was one I approached to speak to, but he seemed to want to avoid me. Maybe it was camera. After the parade they had a bunch of food booths set up and I honestly dont recall a SINGLE booth selling Chinese food. You would think that the local Chinese would have set up some booths and their cuisine would be the premier menu. I mean, could you imagine going to a Cinco de Mayo parade and afterwards going to food booths that sold only Chinese or Indian food? I was thinking they would have some egg rolls or Peking duck. I ended up buying a couple of hotdogs from an Hispanic woman.

Speaking of Hispanics, they seemed to dominate the parade and the crowd. There were low riders with their modified hopping machines and then there were high riders on horses like the guy on the left who was proudly carrying the Mexican flag.

I did see one little girl dressed in a Chinese outfit and at first I thought she was Chinese but after looking at her dad (background) decided that at best she could have been part Chinese, but I think she was full Hispanic.

Fresno has a large East Indian population but I didn’t see a single one at the parade. The closest thing I saw to India being represented was one of Fresno’s newest businesses, which serves as strong reminder that America is gradually descending into third world status: THE RICKSHAW DRIVERS. The main difference between the Indian rickshaw driver and the American rickshaw driver is the Indian driver prudently establishes the cost of his service upfront whereas the American ones simply work for tips. Oh, and some American rickshaws come with electric power-assist.

The real reason I went to the parade was to see the new breed of highly trained military photo journalist or Combat Cameramen.

These uniformed paparazzi endure rigorous training to enable them to perform with extreme speed to CAPTURE THE MOMENT. Speaking of which I just happened to catch them in one of their training exercises where they stoop down real fast to take their shot. Their Sargent was shouting “I’m your subject, SNAP MY FACE!”

I could hear the Sargent yelling: “WHEN YOU CAPTURE THE PERFECT MOMENT, ITS LIKE WALKING ON AIR!”

I was shaking my head saying, “you got that right brother!”

This man was kind enough to allow me to take his picture which is my favorite picture of the day:

© Randy “Lazarus” McAtee

Broker/Owner Lazarus Realty in Fresno CA