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Parades and candy were on the mind of the Yatesville City Council at their Oct. 8 meeting. More specifically, the council was concerned about making sure all parade entrees follow the parade route for the upcoming Chitlin’ Hoedown Parade.

The Chitlin’ Hoedown will be only one day this year, on Saturday, Oct. 27, from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. Mayor Cecil Moncrief stated that the parade will begin at 1 p.m., instead of 3 p.m. as it has in the past.

“The lineup will still be over at the firehouse, as it has always been,” said Moncrief. “It will take the same route as we did last year – go down Highway 74 to Jackson Street, then cut back over to Childs Avenue. Some of them cut off at Edwards Road last year,” he noted.

Council member Wanda Dozier asked if it would help to put up directional signs for those in the parade to follow, but Moncrief doubted it would do any good.

“Here’s the problem,” the mayor said. “We tell them every year that this is the route. Last year, the Shriners had to leave early, so they cut off at Edwards. We told everybody, these people are going to cut off, but you follow us. Well, we’re sitting down there and waiting, and here they go. The Shriners cut off and everybody followed them. I don’t know why they can’t follow directions, but signs are probably not going to help anything. Last year we had the Sheriff’s deputy sitting down there at the end, blocking traffic and telling them where to go.

“Maybe what we need to do is print a map of the parade route and give it to every driver,” suggested Moncrief. “This is where you go. Anything other than this is not where you go. I have a parade route that I have to send to the state every year, so I’ll run copies and give them to the parade folks.”

The mayor added that after complaints about no candy being thrown in last year’s parade, the Yatesville Senior Citizens, who are in charge of the Chitlin’ Hoedown, have decided to allow candy to be thrown again. The no candy decision was made after a man was killed in a Thomaston parade after he went to grab candy from under a tractor-trailer and it rolled over him.

“They can throw candy, but just make sure you tell them to throw it on out,” said Moncrief. “ I ride in the parade, and the problem is, it is not the little kids that run out into the street. It is the older adults. I’ve seen them push kids out of the way to go and get candy. You’d think we were giving out gold.

“So last year the senior citizens voted not to give out candy. To me, that’s just a dull parade. So they voted to go ahead and let them throw candy. But just make sure you get it off of the street.”