The people who made it go

In 15 or 20 years, some of the youngsters who watched the Christmas Parade last Thursday make its loop on Mill and Main streets in Colfax are certain to be marking Christmas elsewhere. They might be off at a distant military base, or they might be working the swing shift at a large urban hospital. Maybe they will find themselves staring at taillights while repeating a long commute along the I-5 corridor.

While at those locations, they might mentally go home for Christmas and think of the 20-plus minutes when they stood out in the cold, dived for candy and watched all those machines go past wit...