Wednesday, May 28, 2014

A Memorial Day Celebration in a Small Town, USA

Ahhhh nothing can beat a small-town parade!

We are lucky enough to set right on the parade route in our tiny town of less than 4,000 people----    It goes right by our house and up the road to the cemetery where a program is held among the graves of the soldiers.

The early morning started out with rain rain rain... But by about 8 a.m. it quit so the parade was still scheduled to run.  We brought out lawn chairs and set up on our front sidewalk, bringing along a couple of chairs for the neighbors.

 I have always wanted to be "those people" who live on a parade route!

Here come Laurie and RC, our neighbors thru the backyard.  
 Steve: "When is this thing starting?"


Please... keep in mind, this is a VERY fast parade, about 10-15 minutes long.  I have taken a picture of EVERYTHING in the parade as it happened so you get the feel of a Small Town Parade!


Ahhhh here it comes----

First are the soldiers!!


Even our doggers know to stand at attention when the flag goes by!


Sad reflection, but it seems every year there are less and less soldiers to march in our parades.


Next in line comes  the Woman's Auxiliary all dressed in patriotic colors.
Behind every good soldier, there is an army of women supporting him!
Wives --  Mothers -- Sisters -- Aunts -- Daughters and so on


Every parade MUST have a Poppy Princess---
Isn't she so cute?   She was doing her "parade wave" just like Jackie Kennedy!


Oh my!  Here come's the music!
In this tiny parade, we got to have TWO marching bands!
Playing patriotic music all the way... no marking time, just one wonderful song after another.

Here is the first one....
 I just love seeing their uniforms and instruments all shiny and blasting.
So glad that even with so many of the schools cutting out the music programs,
 that we still have enough students who love music, and have bands to march in our parades.


AHHHHH  then come the Boy Scouts!!!
They trudged along, scraping their shoes on the cement.
I don't think they REALLY wanted to be in the parade, but yes, there they were trying.


Soooo sweet---- here come the little baton twirlers!
Just adorable!!!


Here is comes, the next band!


I was even able to video record the music they were playing,
but it starts out wiggly.... why?
Because little Finnegan decided he didn't care for the booming drums!
He was wobbling around on my lap while I was holding the video camera.
But then he settled down and the rest of the song can be enjoyed.

That was followed up by the mayor in a car, and the buses to haul the band members back from the presentation at the cemetery.  That was it.  End of parade!  No commercial floats, no candy throwing, no congressmen shaking hands and kissing babies.  No hawkers of gee gaws along the edges of the crowds.  Nope...  Our little small town parade on Memorial Day is just that... a memorial of Honorable Patriotic Americana for the day set aside to remember those who fought to keep our country safe.  

I just love it!  What a fitting tribute. 

Later in the afternoon, the daughter of the original owners of our house came by... she brought some family photo albums so I could scan in some pics of our house over the years.  Here is one from when it was first built!  She is thinking it's only a couple years old in this pic, but there's no date.  It was started in 1913 and finished up in 1914. 




9 comments:

  1. What memories your post brought. I grew up in a small town and my Dad always carried his Dad's flag in the parade. Our parade was like yours, not very long but full of proud Americans. I really think we are losing this feeling of patriotism. Thank you.

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  2. Hope there were more folks on the other end of the route to cheer them! Our parades were small too. We only had one band - but we did have a fire engine :-).

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  3. Your home looks better now than it did when it was built.

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  4. I remember those small town parades well, and I'd much rather watch that kind of parade than the Macy's Thanksgiving Parade (although that started out to be much simpler than it is today).


    I love the picture of the dogs standing at attention.

    Your house was beautiful when it was built, and gorgeous since you've spruced it up.

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  5. We lived three houses down on a side street from the parade route--absolutely the best because friends/family could come in the back way if they arrived late. We were in a suburb which had agreements with nearby suburbs to march in each other's parades so ours was a little bigger than yours but not so big we didn't have scouting families pulling the little ones in wagons or riding decorated bicycles. Great fun.

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  6. Yup Jodee... There were more people up the streets in the more commercial part of town... We are in the residential area a fee blocks from the cemetery. Glad the bands kept playing for us up in our part of town!

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  7. I was one of those kids in a band which marched in a small town parade. Great fun!

    Thanks for sharing you parade and all with us!

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  8. How cool, getting pictures of when your house was just built!

    Lucky house, it is still being loved! :c)

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  9. Nothing wrong with a small Town! Your house has not changed much...

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