Tis the parade season

Local fairs are getting under way, so we have many opportunities to show off a tractor in front of lots of people.  Last week's fair and parade was in Norborne, and there was a huge turnout for such a small town.  As we passed by the spectators, we saw many guys giving Cliff a "thumbs-up".  At the end of the parade route, Cliff took a turn away from the rest of the parade participants in order to get back to the truck and trailer sooner.  Just as we got out of the hearing range for the folks watching the parade, from somewhere in the little 550 came a grinding, rattling noise from beneath us in the guts of that little 550 that scared us both silly, and made us think perhaps our tractor was ruined.  Our pride was totally deflated, replaced by despair.  At least there were no witnesses to the tragedy.

Cliff came home and totally tore the tractor down.  He knew it might damage his paint job in places, but he was determined to get to the bottom of things.  He found no problem in the innards of the beast and put it back together, feeling rather discouraged.  However, there was one thing that had been nagging at him since the terrible noise was first heard:  His first thought had been that the problem was in the brakes or brake housing; but the noise sounded to ugly for that he hadn't checked the brakes.  Turns out a couple of springs had dropped out of place and were rattling around in there.  He did not need to tear down the tractor, pull off the axels, and so forth, to fix it; but what's done is done.    

Tomorrow we plan to participate in the parade at Lexington.  Because this comes on the heels of last week's experience, I remembered to buy some candy to toss to the little beggers charming children watching the parade.  I remembered to buy $17 worth of candy at Walmart.

I was careful to buy candy that wouldn't melt on a hot day.  However, there are certain risks in bring M&Ms into our house, so I placed the candy, unopened, in the back seat of our truck and did not tell Cliff, who then promptly forgot about it.  

Yesterday (Thursday) the Little Princess and I were having a discussion.  I told her Cliff and I, and possible Gabe, were going to be in the parade at Lexington Saturday.  "And for once, I'm going to throw candy out for the kids!"

She said, "Donna, would you save me some of the sour ones?"

This threw me for a loop, because I had never mentioned the candy.  And as far as I knew, she hadn't had any opportunity to see it.  I was very confused!

When Cliff came in, I told him about this as the kid listened, and even he was totally flabbergasted.  Have we been babysitting a clairvoyant child all this time?

Then she said, "Remember when we went to get the mail?"

Last Monday, Cliff had a check he wanted sent as soon as possible and he'd jumped in the truck with it; Little Princess wanted to go along, so he put her in the back seat (where the candy was hidden in the floorboard).  Nothing was ever said about it until yesterday, when she asked me to save some of the sour candy for her.  I'm amazed, as much as anything, that she hadn't brought up the subject sooner, but she didn't... until I mentioned the candy myself.

I'm thinking she knew it was safe to mention it, once I let the cat out of the bag.  Of course I agreed to save her some.