Susan’s a veteran of the Jaycee’s Holiday Parade, having wrangled the big dog for three or four years now. But this was the first year that I got to set foot on the parade route.
Well, the girls and I, that is.
While Susan helped keep the dog from flying away, Abby, Camille and I walked behind with a lot of other News & Record folks handing out what appears to be the gold bullion of the event: reindeer antlers. Even before we got on the route, people were asking for them, including the parade organizers.
Once we stepped on Greene Street, a flood of humanity converged on us. Kids and adults alike. Some were requesting two, three, five of the antlers. It scared me. We walked less than a hundred yards and I was out of my allotment. A couple of people handing them out were under the balloon and they got mobbed to the point that the wranglers were tripping over kids.
Our girls, to their credit, were not shaken too badly by the crush of people. I was a little disturbed by the nerve and ire of some people, though, who got mad because we didn’t have one for everyone.
Get a clue people.
Abby did most of the handing out of the ones we had, and it was all I could do to keep up with her and Camille in the crowd.
They both told me afterwards that they wanted to watch next year.
Me, too. I’m happy to let Susan handle parade duty next year. It was fun, but once is enough.