Well, it is official. Summer is over.

OK, maybe it is not really officially over. But here at the Register office, summer is over.

For many folks summer is over the day after Labor Day. The day after the last day of the State Fair.

But for those of us here at the Faribault County Register, summer ended this week because we have covered our last summer events (Relay for Life and Wells Kernel Days) and we have now shifted gears and have started furiously working on our back to school stories and ads (mainly all the new teachers at all the schools) and also we have started work on our special fall sports section. Yes, I used the word “Fall.”

Of course, I do realize that we are still going to do some summer things, like golfing, going to the lake, camping  and kayaking and all that kind of stuff. And we are probably still going to have some hot and humid weather. And farmers have not even started the fall harvest.

But it does feel like summer is over, at least in our office.

As I feared in last week’s column, Wells Kernel Days can be added to the list of events this summer that had rain. However, the rain went away and it was a beautiful sunny evening for the parade at 5 p.m. on Saturday. It was a nice parade and I took some pretty good photos of it … and I made a friend named Antonio.

Antonio and his older siblings were at the parade and it was obvious they did not understand the whole concept of candy being thrown at them. So, I decided to show them how they needed to go out into the street and pick up the candy and not wait for some to land right at their feet .

While I was demonstrating  how this works, I picked up a lot of candy and gave it all to Antonio (except for one Tootsie Roll which was for me). I think I suddenly became his new best friend.

I showed him that sometimes it is not just candy being flung, but items. At Kernel Days one item was small plastic corn cobs. I told Antonio to pick one up and I think it is now his prized possession.

All of this parade instruction was coming from someone who never did this activity as a child. It is true. I don’t remember ever going to a parade while growing up in California. Well, we did go to Disneyland and there was a parade there. And one time a parade went by my school that was actually a motorcade with President Dwight David Eisenhower in a convertible. But I don’t recall Ike tossing any candy at us. Even though we were waving little American flags at him.

And I did once almost go to the Rose Parade in Pasadena, but at the last minute I ended up not going. I don’t think they throw candy there anyway.

Nope, it wasn’t until I discovered Minnesota small towns as an adult that I learned about small town parades and the tradition of flinging candy at kids and adults during every  parade. And I swear, some of the people I know in the parades are actually trying to hit me with some candy while I take their picture.

Yes, when I was a kid we had to wait for Halloween each year to go door to door and load up on tons of candy. I wonder if my little buddy Antonio knows about Halloween candy?

Well, it is time to take a break and go enjoy my Tootsie Roll from the Kernel Days Parade. And I will enjoy it. Summer is over and it is a long time until Halloween.