Somebody's got to rein in not

rain on Peachtree City's annual July 4th parade.

This year's version was wonderful

as usual, and we owe many thanks to the dozens of people who make it fun,

from citizens who dug into their own pocket to feed candy to the masses

(and decorate their golf carts) to the bands who lifted our spirits with

music and the businesses and churches who put together unique patriotic

floats.

But as nice as the parade was,

it is becoming more of a TV infomercial than an exercise in the patriotic

spirit.

This year, someone tried to

pass off a septic tank truck as a parade float. Gimme a break!

The company's business number

and company name were prominently displayed, but the truck lacked any

significant July 4th decorations. I'd give them a pass if they even bothered

to blare patriotic music as they drove by, but there was no such luck.

Isn't the whole idea of entering

a July 4th parade to entertain the crowd?

I guess we should be happy

the truck didn't reek to high heaven!

The septic tank truck was there

for one reason only: to drum up business. If more than 20 minutes was

spent decorating it, I'll eat my hat.

Is this what we've come to?

Is this the greedy American way? Are parade watchers going to fall like

suckers for this business just because it was featured in the parade and

because the company's flyers were shoved in our faces?

Many other businesses made

a real effort to please the parade crowd, and I'm not jumping on them.

Tons of parade entries, from businesses to churches and other groups,

handed out freebies like bottled water, Popsicles and coupons that were

certainly appreciated by parade watchers.

One church even handed out

invitations to a cookout later that day, and the young lady passing them

out near me was sincere in inviting others to attend. I was impressed.

But other businesses would

foist their flyers, practically dropping them in people's laps. Naturally,

the only public benefit of these flyers was to line the businesses' pockets.

The flyers were usually distributed

clear the candy-crazed kiddies out of their float's path.

From my vantage point, there

were plenty of children standing on the pavement, but those nearest me

were only shooed away two or three times. Bad parenting is the root of

this problem, but that's another subject entirely.

The combined McIntosh-Starr's

Mill parade band which was GREAT, by the way took up the entire two lanes

of the parkway ... as it should have! Adults plodding along in front of

the band had to verbally shoo kids out of the band's path.

Parade watchers also appreciated

the musical floats featuring several youthful independent bands who either

played live music or recordings of their music. It gave the parade a nice

touch.

Hopefully, next year's parade

will be even better. The monster-truck size of some of the floats needs

to be addressed (didn't this start out as a golf cart parade?) and something

has to be done about the flyers, perhaps a ban altogether.

After all, we didn't come to

the parade to be bombarded with ads. We came to be entertained. Fortunately,

the entertainment at last week's parade far overshadowed the advertising.

But if action isn't taken, it will get progressively worse.

Just my two cents, of course.