Have some candy! Watch out for the poop, though.

My parents have become very involved in Norco town politics over the past several years. Well, my mom especially. My dad kind of does what he’s told to do. Mom works at this like it’s her hobby. (And she does it all without a computer, which boggles the mind.)

In March she was named Norco’s Woman of the Year. One of the honors that comes with that is to ride in the Norco Fair’s parade. She wanted the boys to ride in the horse-drawn carriage with her and toss candy to the crowds.

We needed to leave immediately after the parade, so I had to pretty much speed walk the entire parade route next to her carriage, in order to grab my kids and go. Along the 10 blocks of the parade route I noticed several things that made me proud of Norco and at the same time really glad to be from there (if ya know what I’m sayin’….)

• A nice crowd turned out, even in the 80 degree heat (at 10:00 in the morning!)
• Happy parade participants, enthusiastically throwing candy and smiling
• Onlookers clapping and cheering
• Little kids scrambling to pick up the candy and not pick up the road apples
• Little kids scrambling to pick up the candy and not pick up the road kill
• Watching the horses in the parade leave a trail of horse poo
• Watching my mom’s unmarked carriage go along the parade route because no one bothered to tell her that she’d need to provide her own “Woman of the Year – Pat O———-“ signage
• I believe she actually had to round up her own carriage horses too
• Too many people with missing teeth, giant belt buckles and tattoos
• People who still chew tobacco

And yes, this horse is taking a dump.

There was something else I observed that really bothered me. There was a black woman and her two children watching the parade. As I passed by her, I heard her say to her children: “Well I guess they only throw candy to the white children.” That made me so sad! There were children everywhere, scrambling to get the candy. No where along the parade route did I see children getting their candy hand delivered to them.

Way to go Disgruntled Mommy! Good job perpetuating the idea of racial inequality (whether real or imagined – and in this case, imagined) and good job teaching your children that anything you don’t have in life is the fault of someone else.

Horse poop in the street and bullshit on the sidelines. Happy Labor Day and congratulations Mom!