I cannot believe they’re doing the parade again, after what happened last year. All power to them, sure, but it’s a black spot on the history and reputation of Ringwood, and having the Christmas parade again is going to dredge up a lot of bad memories. A LOT.The idea was to have a bunch of cars all decked out like reindeer, with a Santa ‘sleigh’ car following on behind them. All very whimsical, but someone didn’t check with their local Ringwood car mechanic; in fact, a few people didn’t. Maybe it was ego, or negligence, or a combination of many things, but the very first problem was the car portraying Rudolph got a flat tire and skidded into a pole, just seconds after the parade took off. Bit of oil on the road, apparently.
So the red nosed reindeer was removed, the parents stopped the kids from crying, and the parade continued. Then, uh…well, one of the cars got pulled over. Yeah, turns out Blitzen didn’t have a roadworthy certificate and hadn’t actually had one for years, so that reindeer got clamped right then and there. And then…the pile up happened. I think Dasher was just angry that he had to take point since there was an odd number of reindeer now, he took a turn a little too fiercely and almost went right into the crowd, fortunately stopped by the barricade. Donner tried to brake but didn’t get proper brake pad replacement and skidded into Comet, who smashed into Prancer, who swerved into Vixen, who tried to get out of the way…and went right into Santa. All the youngsters got to see Santa’s sleigh driven off the road and right through the window of a fish and chip shop.
And they want to repeat that. Let me just say, it’s a really good idea to get car servicing. There are real quality garages that offer brake servicing in Ringwood, so at least make sure those are working. Don’t ruin Christmas twice because you’re lazy about keeping your car in good shape.