Home » A Solstice Story: The Enduring Power of Bubbles

A Solstice Story: The Enduring Power of Bubbles

by Kirby Lindsay, posted 15 July 2011

 

Bubbleman creates bubbles before the Solstice Parade, year unknown, using a bubble-maker created from 200 6-pack rings. Photo provided by Garry Golightly

The Bubbleman (also known as Garry Golightly) has walked in fifteen Fremont Arts Council (FAC) Solstice Parades.  Previous years, he filled the streets with bubbles, to the delights of audiences, while walking amidst cyclists – both naked and painted – before the parade, “draggin’ the wagon,” he explained, filled with bubble solution and self-made bubble apparatus.

This year, thanks to a parent, Randy Kilmer, Bubbleman rode through the parade on his very own float.  Last January, Golightly recalled, Kilmer asked if he wanted to have a float, and an ensemble, and he gave a very enthusiastic ‘Yes!’

Kilmer said, ‘I’ll take care of it,’ and did.  He financed the lumber and hardware while another parent, and carpenter, Russell Thomas, built cutouts (“he was fantastic about it,” Golightly praised.)  These pieces were attached to a float base provided by the FAC, and built according to designs by Bubbleman.

The Bubble Float, in the 2011 Solstice Parade, with the "chandellabras" and other singular Bubbleman creation hanging upon it. Photo by K. Lindsay

The pieces were dismantled, and stowed safely away, after the 2011 parade, for next year.  While walking the parade route, Bubbleman complained good-naturedly, “I never got to see the parade.”  He prefers riding the float – and focusing on creating bubbles – while pushed by four amazing dads, and surrounded by 25 pint-sized Bubbl-rinas and Bubbl-itos, yet this year, “I didn’t even get to see the spectators,” he admitted, as the float filled with soap!

Memorable After-Parade Celebrations

Since his arrival in Seattle in 1995, Bubbleman has become a favorite for photographers.  His extreme bubble displays, and enthusiastic, loving manner, make him an excellent subject – and he welcomes the cameras, but asks for a copy of any photo so he can enjoy the sight as well.

One photo he still covets, of him filling a Fremont street with bubbles before the parade, ran in the Sunday edition of The Seattle Times in 2000.

The following Monday, a woman reached him by phone.  His photo appeared on the reverse side of an obituary published about her one-year-old son, Mason, who died the day of the Parade.  According to Bubbleman, the mother asked simply, ‘Do you do funerals?’

Bubbleman blows bubbles that get camoflauged on the BubbleVan Photo by K. Lindsay, July 2011

This is how Bubbleman came to stand atop a hill, in a children’s cemetery, in Sea-Tac.  He carefully located a grassy spot amidst – but not upon – the graves, and proceeded to make bubbles as big as a SmartCar while planes roared overhead.  Soon he heard another growing roar, and 30 bikers, members of The Banditos, road in to the cemetery.  While they joined the mourners, Bubbleman held his post, creating bubbles and singing his bubble songs to the children’s graves.

“The procession approached,” he reported, “and I’m crying.”  The funeral proceeded with traditional prayers, and hymns, sung to Mason.  After the service, Bubbleman recently related in wonder, the participants lined up, “like in a wedding receiving line,” to shake his hand – including the bikers and Mason’s five-year-old sister.

After the deeply moving experience, “I went home,” he said, and opened the door just in time to catch the ringing phone.  It was Ryan’s mom calling, reminding Bubbleman that he was supposed to perform at her four-year-old’s birthday the next day.  Bubbleman started to reassure her that everything was ready.  Ryan lived in an oxygen tent – like a bubble boy – and his mom had elaborately arranged the performance to take place outside his window where Ryan could watch the bubbles, and his friends, from safety.

The Bubble Float filled the street with bubbles during the 2011 Solstice Parade, but the only part of Bubbleman visible is the wand, that waves in the air above. Photo by K. Lindsay

Ryan’s mom stopped Bubbleman, to explain that Ryan had died.  He’d so looked forward to the bubble show, she explained, ‘could you do his funeral?’  So, within a single week, Bubbleman found himself at another cemetery, this time in Everett, near Paine Field, creating bubbles as planes roared overhead and tears streaked down his cheeks.

Solstice (And Other) Celebrations

Since then, he’s done two more funerals and, he said, “both of them more amazing than I ever could have imagined.”  The tragic shows stick in his mind, particularly around the Solstice, but so do the many, many purely joyous occasions he’s helped celebrate in over 30 years of full-time work as Bubbleman.

The Bubbl-rinas show their skills at creating bubbles during the 2011 Solstice Parade Photo by K. Lindsay

Bubbleman performs for birthdays – although he calls them ‘worth days’ – as well as weddings, grand openings, company parties, street fairs, and at least one divorce.  He has also had, on occasion, to miss the Solstice Parade for a bubble gig booked elsewhere.  After all, summer is his high season and he must make the most of it, although he’d like more winter shows.  He explained, the cool, calm and cloudy days, “it’s bubble heaven!”

For now, he expects to return to perform in the 2012 Solstice Parade, riding his Bubble Float, surrounded by his copyrighted ‘chandellabras,’ and girls and boys wearing tutus – all made from plastic six-pack rings.

Golightly collects soda rings all year, to create art – some on display right now at the Art On The Ridge gallery in Greenwood.  For the kids, he showed them, and their parents, how to make the costumes.  “I love having taken something so horrible, and making art and trashy fashion,” he explained.

As for the Solstice Parade, “it’s my Flavorite!  It is one long declaration of the first amendment, but there are no words allowed.  It’s somewhat of an oxymoron.”  He welcomes the chance to celebrate again, to reach out with his infectious fun, and draw in children of all ages.  As Bubbleman says, “Play Attention!”©


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©2011 Kirby Lindsay.  This column is protected by intellectual property laws, including U.S. copyright laws.  Reproduction, adaptation or distribution without permission is prohibited.

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