What are you throwing?

Tonight we'll partake in a Magruder Family Tradition. We'll put on comfy shoes, pack water bottles and wet wipes, lawn chairs and a blanket, and several empty ice cream buckets, and head to the North end of Springfield for the Illinois State Fair Twilight Parade.

It's the mother of all parades.....state-wide politicians, corporate businesses, clowns and high school marching bands all headed into the Illinois State Fairgrounds for opening night.

Now, it needs to be said that we are parade people. If there's a parade happening, we're going to try to be there. Christmas parades in frigid November, sweltering Labor Day parades, St. Patrick's Day drunk fest (just try to sit far from the bar entrances) ....we go to them all. We clap when bands pass by, stand when we see the flag, and wave at old people in cars.

And one thing in particular always catches my attention. What kind of candy do people throw? Because, really, I feel like I understand how much you value me as a customer/constituent by what candy you throw out at the parade. Don't even bother throwing me a tootsie roll. Please, don't even try to tell me it's "chocolate". Peppermints...Really? Is that all the creativity you could come up with? Dum-Dum sucker? Insulting.

Take a lesson from the Nestle company in Robinson, Illinois. Every year at the Pioneer City Rodeo Labor Day Parade, in the stifling heat of September, the Nestle factory employees have a parade float and throw full-size candy bars out. No mini half-bites.....no excuses that the chocolate will melt. They throw the real thing. The things people really want.

So call me a parade snob....a candy critic....I'll be saving my calories for the good stuff and digging through my kids' ice cream buckets for whatever chocolate goodness I can find. And trust me, I have a memory like an elephant. When election time rolls around or it's time for me to shop at your business....I'll remember what you threw.