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With candidates running for election, teen gymnasts vaulting down the center line of Fifth Avenue South, and military veterans observing it all, the Naples Fourth of July parade was a hodgepodge of the city’s life.

The nearly two-hour parade drew thousands of spectators Friday to the route along Third Street South and Fifth Avenue South in downtown Naples for the start at 10 a.m. By the time it ended just before noon, 86 degrees felt steamy after the early morning clouds burned off.

Standing on the road, even in the shade, the sweat didn’t just bead up. It dripped off parade-goers who were happy to be caught in the water stream of squirt-gun toting float-riders.

Never ones to go last, the Marines headed up the parade behind the color guard, with two trucks full of veterans.

Of all the floats, they drew the loudest cheers from the crowd as they rolled through the streets playing the Marines’ Hymn from loudspeakers, with people on the sidelines clapping in time to “From the Halls of Montezuma to the shores of Tripoli.”

Everett Short sported his Marine dress blues as he stood on the flatbed of a pickup truck for the whole parade route, tossing candy from buckets to onlookers.

“Fourth of July is just a – hell, I dunno, celebrating what you used to do,” said Short, who remembers the exact days of his military service during World War II: from Sept. 3, 1942, to Dec. 13, 1945, in the Pacific for nearly 28 months and in the Atlantic just under half a year.

The first ones off the floats and done with the parade, Short and his fellow veterans hopped of the truck and started planning their weekend – lunch with the Marines at an Italian restaurant in North Naples, grabbing a beer somewhere afterward, and a party on Saturday for the 90th birthday of another Marine.

The brotherhood is strong year-round, they say, but Fourth of July gives them all the more reason to get together.

“(The parade) comes at a good time when we need to appreciate what’s going on over there, or else we wouldn’t be able to enjoy this luxury,” said fellow Marine Russell Lawley, who watched the parade from the second-floor balcony of the Fifth Avenue Merrill Lynch office alongside Lorenzo Tofani, a Navy veteran.

As a Navy veteran surrounded by former Marines, “I get insults all day long,” chuckled Lorenzo Tofani, 86, as the horns from the first floats became audible midway along the parade route.

Former Marine Jack Mischung, who served from 1959 to 1963, drove the Marines’ cherry red truck that had a 10-foot tall replica of the Iwo Jima memorial loaded onto a hydraulics system on the flatbed to raise it during the parade.

“I love it,” Mischung said of the role he has played for the past few years in the parade.

“It’s a great feeling to see everyone saluting or holding their hands over their hearts,” he added before pulling out of a parking lot to put the truck and memorial statue into storage.

Behind the Marines’ float, scores of floats from public and private entities wound their way through the main roads of Old Naples.

Merchants used the opportunity to advertise creatively, with roller skaters and skateboarders handing out brochures, buttons, and the biggest hit – free bottles of cool water.

One parade participant even put the price of the cars being driven on the sides of the vehicle.

Community groups like Citizens Transportation Coalition took the opportunity to announce agendas to a captive audience, with signs like “Keep your hands off my Alley,” while the Naples Kazoo Band created a buzz with their renditions of patriotic songs.

The big winners, however, were children who walked away drenched in sweat but satisfied after picking up dozens of pieces of candy off the street to keep the sugar-high going throughout the afternoon.

Getting all the candy, confirmed Andrew Foley, 7, was the highlight of the parade.

He estimates he walked away with about 73 pieces of candy, kept safe in a plastic grocery bag.

Jennifer and Lou Foley brought their three children to sit along the tail end of the route on Eighth Street, on the east side of Cambier Park.

“We had a good time. It was hot. And it’s the first time I’ve seen a mechanical bull in a parade,” said Lou Foley with a laugh, packing up the family’s chairs.

After two hours in the sun, their three children had sweaty foreheads but loads of sweets to justify the time spent outside.

Andrew’s younger sisters, Molly, 5, and Hannah, 3, chomped on candy thrown from the floats when their mother, Jennifer Foley, announced the plan for the afternoon: the pool, then maybe watching the fireworks.

“Oh, it’s a great plan,” interjected Andrew, 7. “I’m hot, I wanna get out of here.”

Given the brisk clip with which hundreds of parade-goers headed down Eighth Street South toward their cars and air conditioning, lugging lawn chairs and children behind them, he wasn’t the only one.

RETURN TO NAPLESNEWS.COM LATER TODAY FOR A PHOTO GALLERY.