Temps dropping from cotton to wool socks

Last night I had dinner at Evelyn's with Merle's daughters and grandaughter. The younger daughter, Cristi?, was showing us her rather fancy MySpace page complete with slideshow. One of the pictures fading up through the star cut-out was that of everybody's favorite cousin. In this land of free association I wondered why he was wearing such a conservative blue shirt. I always think of Merle in those bright, verging on neon, striped western shirts. Then I thought of him as Parade Marshall at the Hermosa 4th of July Parade and remembered the shrine to the small engine with the flat-bed trailer carrying all those two-stroke engines merrily chugging away and then I tried to remember who threw better candy, the Republicans or the Democrats? or was it all the same?