Times Are Tough

Sunday afternoon was the Pumpkin Festival Parade to usher in the West Virginia Pumpkin Festival here in our town. It's a small, small town and the parade doesn't have much going for it. It usually consists of the local high school marching band, a few fire trucks, politicians, floats (usually a trailer pulled by a truck or tractor) decorated by local businesses and churches or filled with kids. But the highlight of the parade, for those under 13, is the candy. All those politicians, local businesses, and kids on horse trailers throw candy. The streets become covered in candy and kids dodge the fire engines to grab tootsie rolls from the gutter. It's all great fun.

Except yesterday, the candy was lame. We were about 1/3 of the way down the parade route and the floats were already out of candy or they were throwing one piece at a time. I was standing with my three kids (Rye was on a float) and two friends and their five kids. One pixie stick doesn't stretch that far! I guess the banking crisis is farther reaching than I realized. ;)