The great
candy debate

In the grand scheme of things, the debate over whether candy should be thrown to eagerly awaiting children lined up along parade routes is relatively unimportant.

A minor disagreement ensued last week over whether candy should have been thrown at the Columbus County Fair parade.

There are two sides to the issue.

One camp would argue that banning candy removes some of the “thrill of the hunt” from children who attend our wonderful parades.

The other side is the issue of safety.

Call us funsuckers, but an incident one staff member witnessed at a parade should give everyone cause for concern.

It was a typical fall parade. Firefighters were happily throwing candy from their fire engine. A throng of overanxious young children rushed to the mass of candy, and to the horror of the crowd, one child tripped and fell head-first toward the fire engine. The youngster suffered a nasty laceration as his arm scraped a lug nut on the front wheel of the fire engine, but it’s easy to see that this incident was inches away from being a terrible tragedy.

We don’t remember anything that scary happening here, but in every parade, there is inevitably some pushing and shoving to reach candy that didn’t quite make it to the sidewalk.

Having children clamor near the wheels of 18-wheelers, fire engines or the hooves of horses simply isn’t safe.

There are alternatives. Some parade organizers allow parade entrants to designate someone to hand out candy to children who must remain on the curb.

Other parades simply ban candy outright.

Candy throwing is an issue that deserves consideration from all organizations that sponsor parades.

Parades are supposed to be fun, but safety should be paramount.