The Original Squid Ink: In which we are pelted with candy

Yesterday was the annual Community Picnic and parade. It's one of those "isn't our town CUTE?" moments. We moved in here almost exactly a year ago. Our first weekend had this parade and gathering in the park. It's a nice welcome, I tell you. The parade was smaller this year, but the kids still got PILES of candy. It's just the fire department and the local baseball teams, and the teams are judged on spirit and their "float" (most often a pickup truck with balloons on it). As they go by, they toss candy to the spectators. As it happens, we live next door to the judges. The kids learned last year that if you stand with the neighbors, you get a lot of loot.

They were really, really anxious for the parade to start. Once they saw the flicker of light waaaaay down the road, they were getting ready, limbered up, loot bags open. "They're almost here!!"

Really, it looks as much like a response to an emergency call as a parade. We had more action when the neighbor called in a minor chimney fire.

The kids on the floats loooved throwing out the candy and our kids loooved scrambling for it. I admit to a twinge when the truckload of pre-adolescent boys yelled "hey girls!" at Julianna and Molly and tossed the candy right at them. I wanted to say "This is not Mardi Gras, young man!" but I was distracted by a piece of banana Laffy Taffy. Snag!