Holiday Fireworks Start Early Coeur D’Alene Parade Entrant Gutter Guys Kicked Out For Distributing Candy To Children

As colorful explosions etched nighttime skies above Spokane’s Riverfront Park on Thursday, Coeur d’Alene sizzled from morning fireworks of a different kind.

Halfway through Coeur d’Alene’s American Heroes Parade, one of the entrants was kicked out for giving candy to children.

The Gutter Guys - the only entrants to carry on the tradition of passing out sweets - were given the boot for violating a new rule. Fire officials feared kids would get trampled in the rush for candy.

“They had been asked probably a half dozen times to stop” handing out candy, said Ron Sampert, deputy chief of the Kootenai County Fire Protection District, the parade’s sponsor.

The parade committee cited safety as its concern when it passed a new rule this year that barred parade entrants from throwing candy. “They chose to ignore it,” Sampert said of The Gutter Guys, employees of Seamless Raingutters and Roofing.

Meanwhile, adults were allowed their fun. Local Democrats handed out campaign literature and T.W. Fisher’s brewery doled out coupons for free beer.

By the time the sky darkened over Riverfront Park in Spokane, thousands were swarming around tent shops selling jewerly, T-shirts, palm reading and ethnic food.

Just after 9 p.m., a row of about five food stands suffered a power outage. Everything else, though, seemed to go just fine.

Kids walked past hydroplanes on display and let out a long, breathless “coool…”

Two on-call Fire Department paramedics had laid down their mountain bikes long enough for a quick taste of strawberry shortcake.

And everyone was wriggling closer to the Clock Tower to get the best view of the fireworks.

“We haven’t done this in three years, and it was a lot easier,” said Edward Pollack as his family staked out a square of turf and covered it with a blanket. “We’ll be able to see from here, if we don’t get trampled.”

During the day, paths through the park were crowded with strollers and snow cones, as people moseyed past the booths, politicians and hawkers.

Appropriate for a celebration of freedom, variety was the theme.

A “Legalize Hemp” sign bobbed past a politician wanting to outlaw abortion. A traditional Native American group shared the stage of the inaugural American Music Festival with the Platters. Abe Lincoln passed a Hells Angel.

Despite ending with a spectacular fireworks display, Spokane’s Fourth of July was a lazy summer day.

“This is pretty small town, just like the ‘Music Man,”’ said Shannon Davidson, eating lunch with her husband and three children on a knoll in Riverfront Park.

Her daughter, 7-year-old Emma, was anything but relaxed. She wanted fireworks.

“I love those things that are sparkly on the end,” Emma said. “And I like the smell of them.”

The 3-year-old county fireworks ban generated some heat among vacationers. A couple visiting from Vancouver, B.C., was surprised to learn the Roman candles in their trunk were considered contraband.

“Firecrackers on your Independence Day is eggs on Easter,” said Claude Becker, hiking in Riverside State Park. “Banning them is just loony.”

But the patriotic point of the day was clear to many. More than 30 people gathered in the Finch Arboretum to talk politics, eat potato salad off paper plates and listen to “Yankee Doodle Dandy.”

“What those people did 220 years ago was more than speechifying and writing a letter to the editor,” said Tom Westbrook, organizer of the gathering, referring to America’s founding fathers. “They put it on the line, their lives and their honor.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color Photo

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Jonathan Martin staff writer Staff writers Susan Drumheller and Ward Sanderson contributed to this report.