It’s July 3^rd, do you know where your lawn chair is? If you live in my Chicago suburb, it probably is somewhere along the famed Independence Day parade route.

Saving spots for this parade has become a competitive sport. It’s almost like “dibs” in downtown Chicago where people save shoveled-out parking spaces during the winter.  I’ve blogged about our spot-saving shenanigans before here. And last year we were at a family reunion, so I have been looking forward to spending July 4^th at home.

For some reason our Independence Day parade is the most popular in the Chicagoland area. Years ago people started claiming dibs days before the parade with chairs, blankets and whatever else and it got out of hand. To curb the insanity, the city put a ban on early dibbing. You can only mark your spot starting at 7 p.m. the evening before the parade.

Frankly even though the village has set that deadline, people start parking their cars in front of their favorite spots by 6 p.m. If you wait until 7 p.m. to claim dibs, you’ll be out of luck. You gotta be there by 6:15, 6:30 at the latest.

This year I forgot about the time-honored tradition until the night before. Hubby and I agreed after tee-ball we would jet over to our preferred spot and stake our claim.

On “Parade Dibs Day,” I lost track of time and before I knew it, it was time for tee-ball and I hadn’t devised a new-and-improved way to save our spot. You should see some of the techniques people use. They duct-tape their tie-dyed sheets to the bricked sidewalks, lawn chairs laced with police tape to cordon off square patches of land and the most popular are tent stakes and rope.

Our technique is a little more crude. We nail our blankets to the ground, but hey it gets the job done.

I’m just glad we’ve got a nice shaded spot, and I can’t wait to watch the parade from the front row.