Members of the Newtown Labor Day Parade Committee this week successfully petitioned the Board of Selectmen to reduce the number of permits it issues to outside vendors for the town’s annual parade. Last year, 26 vendors secured permits for the Labor Day Parade. With their massive carts and arrays of balloons and merchandise they managed distract children and irritate adults all along the parade route. To find evidence of past problems associated with parade vendors, one has only to read the town’s vendor application form: “no silly string, no poppers or firecrackers, no fake vomit.”

The only “contribution” the purely commercial vendors make to the parade are overpriced balloons and plastic novelties, some not suitable for a family event. Much of this junk ends up broken in the gutters even before the parade ends like so much flotsam and jetsam. There are, however, several community groups that have set up concessions along the parade route in the past to raise funds and public awareness of their respective causes. Vendors’ licenses should continue to be made available for these groups; their presence helps make the parade an event that both entertains and benefits the community. Commercial vendors, however, should be discouraged from plying their trade at the parade. The 15 licenses allocated for this year’s parade should go first to non-profit groups directly associated with Newtown.

One measure of our enjoyment of the Labor Day Parade has always been the degree to which the children around us enjoy the spectacle. It is always fun for kids to get something at the parade to take home with them – a balloon, a small toy, or treat. Several of the marching units come prepared to accommodate them without charge. This should suffice.

We have one other suggestion. In recent years, it has become the custom for units in the parade to throw candy to children along the parade route. We have witnessed a few very close calls, when toddlers scrambled perilously close to the massive rolling tires of large trucks to retrieve a small wrapped candy. If they had tripped or stumbled, they would have been crushed, in front of their own parents, in front of other children, in front of everybody. It could easily happen this year or any year.

Why wait for something horrible and tragic to happen before we end this practice? If groups wish to distribute toys or candy to children along the parade route, let’s require that they walk the sidewalks behind the crowds at the curb. If there is to be any scrambling of children, let it be away from the roadway, not into it.