×

Kudos go to parade organizers

Oh, good job, folks.

We speak, of course, of VFW Post 4368 in Milford and the people there who put on the latest edition of the Milford Labor Day parade, which this year was clearly a hit.

How big was this year’s edition? It took nearly 90 minutes for the parade to wend its way from Milford High School through the Oval and to the VFW Post, and that’s an indication of a good-sized parade.

There were lots of clever floats and a great number of spectators, both of which are keys to the success of any endeavor like a parade. Gov. Maggie Hassan and Sen. Kelly Ayotte were there, too, as were many local office holders and office seekers, standard fare for the Labor Day event.

Naturally, we were disappointed not to see any of our presidential contenders. Not even Jill Stein or her running mate, Ajamu Baraka? Really? They had some­thing better to do than march in the Gran­ite State’s premier Labor Day parade? Ah, well.

Seriously, though, we were disappoint­ed that neither Donald Trump nor Hillary Clinton bothered to come, nor even send their running mates, Mike Pence and Tim Kaine. Perhaps they don’t think our four electoral votes count for much, given the number of votes that states such as Cali­fornia and New York get. Heck, even Iowa has six.

But, really, none of that is neither here nor there. The fact remains that this year’s Labor Day parade was big, it was fun and it went off without a hitch, at least as far as we and other spectators could tell. And we all should know that when things seem to go off sans hitches, it is because a lot of dedicated people work really hard in the background to ensure that they do.

We also like the idea that this year’s pa­rade theme was "Education" and that the VFW put on a college fair at which col­lege and military recruiters could talk to potential students and service mem­bers. It gave teenagers and their parents a chance to speak with recruiters in an atmosphere of congeniality and relative calm.

But now the parade has passed us by for this year, and we look forward to 2017 with, first, the Amherst July 4 parade and then again Labor Day in Milford.

We hope you are, too.