By Ken Lass
My family always looks forward to the Trussville Christmas parade with great anticipation, especially in recent years when my granddaughter has been in it. This year she rode with the eight year old cheerleaders. So our clan gathered together Saturday morning to carefully plan our strategy for the event. If you’ve never attended one of these, you might not appreciate that you do have to have a plan. And it has to go into action well before the Trussville motorcycle cops and fire department lead the high school band down Parkway Drive to begin the festivities.
The first challenge is to get our granddaughter to the line-up area in the sports park. Her float number was 113, which means she was toward the back of the line. Of course, hundreds of other parents are also trying to deliver their kids to the proper space, making the park a tangle of frustrated drivers, parked floats, and excited children darting across the street. Any attempt at organization seems futile. We saw a policeman in the middle of the main park intersection whom we assumed was there to direct traffic, but he just kind of stood there motionless as if to say “I give up. Y’all are just doing what you want anyway.”
Our assignment was to stake out a good location from which to watch the parade, set up the lawn chairs, and protect the territory from invasion. That brings us to the always fun adventure of finding a place to park. You know, some place closer than, say, Argo. I’m always impressed by the creativity of Trussville drivers when it comes to inventing places to park. No patch of grass, no median nor shoulder is left vacant. Yet, despite the glut of cars blanketing the neighborhoods, somehow driveways, for the most part, remain unblocked, and escape routes are always available in the lots. I almost never see anybody blocked in. We Trussvillians may be zealous about our Christmas parade, but we are also considerate, which I’m sure is greatly appreciated by the home owners.
Experienced parade watchers all have their favorite secret parking spots and vantage points. We have ours. I could reveal them to you, but then they would no longer be secret. (Guess I’m not so considerate after all.) Once settled in, the next job is to make sure our three younger grands have their bags ready to catch candy. I was stationed on the far left with our two year old. But as the parade and the candy throwing began, I noticed the family right next to us had taken their strategy to the next level. They had constructed a cardboard box with a spiral target protruding upward, on which was written “Try to hit the bullseye!” This naturally captured the attention of all the candy throwers and they went crazy tossing goodies at the target. That meant they were empty-handed when they rolled past us. Maybe I should have been irritated, but instead I couldn’t help but admire this family’s innovation. It really was a brilliant idea. One which I will gladly steal next year.
And fortunately, some of the float riders threw huge handfuls of sweets at the box, and a bunch of them landed in our range. My little guy snatched them up with great glee. About 45 minutes into the march, the big moment arrived. No, not Santa Claus. The float with our granddaughter came by. We got incredibly lucky that she was positioned on the trailer facing our side of the street. Thank you Jesus. Phone cameras rolling, we hollered and whooped at her as she went by. She flashed a big smile when she recognized us and flung a fistful of candy our way, to the joy of her little brothers.
Missions accomplished. Even the weather turned out beautiful after threats of rain. We packed up the chairs and the grocery bags laden with more candy than you could eat in ten years, and headed to the car. I couldn’t help but notice all of the candy that was left littering the street. A lot of it had been run over by floats and welded into the pavement. I felt sorry for those in charge of cleaning that mess up. They are unsung heroes. A Christmas toast to them, and to all who help make the annual parade a highlight of the season.
Hope your Christmas is the best one ever. As for me, I’ll be busy helping the grandkids work on those bags of parade candy.