The Hipwaders at Suisun's Kids Festival

Life's richest moments and memories usually consist of both the good and the bad, the Yin & Yang, the sweet & sour. The bittersweet does provide the best memories and The Hipwaders just had that kind of a show.

The City of Suisun put on a Kid Festival yesterday and event chairperson Anita Skinner did her best to provide local kids and families with an awesome event. Cities are usually only able to put on one kid-oriented event a year and yesterday was that day.

But, it rained.

Now, normally, that'd be the end of the story. People wouldn't show up. Vendors would rue the day they paid their fee to hawk their wares as families won't show up to an event if a downpour is in the forecast.
With us it's a little different. Fortunately, the rain let up about an hour prior to our show and we were able to set up. Surprisingly, Lt. Governor John Garamendi showed up to the event as he had a meeting with the local city politicos later that day.

Our friend, Alan Blondin, did think that Garamendi went a little overboard with the Stormtrooper security.

I had the chance to speak with the Lt. Governor and took the opportunity to ask that he lend an ear to the concern of my fellow paramedics who don't have the power that police and fire unions have to highlight issues important to their profession. He reminded me of his role in the 1982 California State Senate bill that led to the licensing of paramedics. I also thanked him for his role as State Insurance Comissioner and Prop 103 in his fight to end corruption in the insurance industry that led to massive rebates in fees to car and homeowners.

Word on the street is John Garamendi may be running for Governor next year. I think he got The Hipwader vote when he introduced us to the crowd at the Suisun Harbor.


While "crowd" perhaps isn't the right word, people showed up from as far away as Sacramento and Brentwood. It's always fun to see our friend Alex rocking out. We were also happy he requested "Field Trip" off our new cd. It's probably our favorite song to play.

So while the people danced away - as a did a giant Subway sandwich (?) - we were able to have fun for and hour and a half until the rain returned and we had to cut the gig short. It was supposed to be a 3 hour tour!

We promised Anita Skinner we'd do all we could to help her in her quest to get Suisun City to have another kid-focused day this summer. While most of the planned events got rained out and the vendors got soaked (pun intended) we had a blast and got to meet up with old fans and made some new ones, too.

Oh, yeah, and the Lt. Governor asked for business cards. We also hooked him up with some cds (he's got 10 grandchildren). Perhaps The Hipwaders will be performing at a family function at the California State Capitol for "Governor John Garamendi".