There is still time to have Joe make you a lemon shake up at the Lions Club booth at the Steam Show. Joe will end his shift today at 6 pm, but he’ll be back in there bright and early Sunday morning working 6 am to 10 am. Now, we know that 6 am is a bit early for a lemon shake up, but you can always just stop by to visit.

We had a really good time in the parade Friday night, too. We want to thank Racine and Barb for coming out on their own time to help. Barb also brought Steve and her granddaughters (they had hurried back from a vacation just to ride in the parade), who got into a giant squirt gun fight with my dad at the end of the parade.

Charles Holcombe, our relief pharmacist, also came to see what all the ruckus was about, as well as our pharmacy student, Matt. Charles, Matt, and Joe saved the day, because we had forgotten the balls and beads to throw in the parade back at the pharmacy. Charles drove, at speeds a Nascar driver would be proud of, down through the little back streets to beat the police who were closing the roads for the parade. There would have been a lot of disappointed kids if those balls and beads had not arrived.

We also spent the final moments before the parade began blowing up inflatable beach balls that had been overlooked. So by the time the line of tractors and floats wound out through Pastime Park, we were all out of breath.

We like the parades for a lot of reasons.

For one, they are always ego boosting. There is nothing like having multitudes of people calling your name to make you feel like a rock star.

Secondly, seeing the little kids jump up and down with joy when you toss them a “bouncy ball” or a sparkly chain of beads makes you just as happy as they are.  In fact, more adults get excited about the beads than the kids! We have learned from all the smiles and laughs that happiness truly is infectious.

One of our goals for the parade is to never run out of beads or candy before we hit Main Street. The very first year we did the parade, Paul Carpenter, our delivery driver had been inspired to participate in it. But we did it on the spur of the moment and didn’t have much candy bagged. We ran out of things to throw by the time we turned the corner from North Avenue. So we have always vowed to have candy and beads for the children lining Main Street. Most of the other parade participants have given out all their goodies by that point and those kids get cheated. We managed to stick with our goal this year and we had candy and balls and beads right until the very end as we pulled back into Pastime Park.

The other part of our goal, however, is to have nothing left over. We achieved that goal, too.

We had heard that there was a water coup planned by Dr. Shugert and Joe was ready with several squirt guns and loaded water balloons, but the mutinous battle never materialized. Maybe next year…

We want to thank everyone who came out to support the Steam Threshers and Plain City Druggist in the parade. And if we failed to toss a ball or string of beads your way, remember, there is always another parade just around the corner.