Parade of Cookies

Let's talk about parades, shall we? When I was growing up, parades were a BIG DEAL. Like, a really big deal where everyone in the neighborhood goes and the streets next to the parade route turn into parking lots and grandpa type people bring their lounge chairs and spend the day on the curb. (And teenager type people drop off a sofa the night before and "forget" to arrange to have it picked up after the parade.)

The parades had floats. You know, big things decorated in flowers and balloons and crepe paper and you have no idea how they are propelling themselves down the road except for an occasional glimpse at a tire when part of the shiny flaps gets caught on the hub cap for a second. They had horses and marching bands and people with glitter all over them AND CANDY. Lots of candy.

I was so excited when my son was finally old enough to take to a parade. (Because its totally weird when a 24 year old is trying to get the candy before some 6 year old scoops it up, but its okay if you're doing it for your own kid, you know?) It was a total let down though. This so-called "parade" consisted of people riding around in cars while someone walked down the street next to them handing out flyers that said, "Eat at Joe's." I didn't even get a coupon! And definitely no candy. I felt like I had to take my son out for ice cream afterwards just to make up for the fact that I took him to the parade in the first place.

You know what my favorite parade of the year was? The Health Days Parade. That parade always had the BEST candy. We would take turns staking out the "good spot" with my cousins. With a parade that big...you had to work as a team if you were going to survive. We had this whole strategy to edge people out of our "candy zone." And they always threw out frisbees and footballs and ping pong balls with numbers on them too. And then you traded the ping pong balls in for big prizes at the fair behind the parade. And my favorite part of all was that a parade for HEALTH Days had so much candy. Even as a child I appreciated irony. And candy. Lots of candy.

Georganne
Georganne

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